Cady's Journey
by TeaTheUnicorn
Summary: Arcadia Hayes has moved around a lot and now that she's back in England she's going to attend Hogwarts. She meets the Lovely Lily Evans and the Meddlesome Marauders. Marauders Era. JP/LE OC/?
1. Introducing Me

Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognise.

A.N- I'm probably going to transport some music from now, so don't kill me. Thank you for reading.

Beggining Again

Arcadia Hayes walked through the crowd, carefully hauling her trunk behind her, trying not to bump into anyone. The last thing she wanted was to make a fool of herself right before her first year at Hogwarts. It wasn't her first year of magical education, Arcadia had just transferred from a school in America, her step-father had moved for a job oppurtunity in England and she was left with no choice but to move with him as her mother was recently deceased.

She stepped into the train, quickly coming across and empty compartment, Arcadia had arrived early to make sure she could find somewhere to sit where she wouldn't be disturbed. She stowed away her luggage quickly and removed the guitar that hung from her back by a black strap. Sitting on one of the cushioned seats she began to play, just a simple song, and hummed along dreamily, imagining Hogwarts and hoping she would find some friends there.

Just as she had begun to play _I'm Yours_ and sing along softly she heard some loud voices out in the corridor, they sounded like boys and Arcadia hoped they weren't looking for a compartment, she knew all to well that if they were and they stumbled upon one with only one person occupying it they would quickly claim it for themselves. She continued playing her guitar acting ignorant when she heard the door slide open and someone step inside. When the person cleared their throat loudly she had no option but to acknowledge their presence.

"Yes? Can I help you with anything?" She asked a slight Irish accent tugging at her words as she stared out the window.

"Do you mind if I sit here? Everywhere else is full and I don't fancy running into Potter, _again_." Arcadia looked up then, to see a girl with vivid red hair and sparkling green eyes, she was looked a little taller than Arcadia and the expression on her face was friendly.

"Okay. I don't mind."

The girl sat across from her and introduced herself. "I'm Lily, Lily Evans." She held out a hand and Arcadia politely shook it.

"I'm Arcadia Hayes, nice to meet you." The girl, Lily, was now looking at Arcadia curiously.

"I haven't seen you around before, are you new? You look a little old to be a first year."

Arcadia nodded. "I just transferred here from America, I'm in sixth year. My step-father moves aound a lot because of his job."

"Oh, cool. I'm in sixth year too, Gryffindor. I suspect you're to be sorted with the first years?"

She shook her head. "No, I was sorted over the summer, I suppose it's so I don't stick out too much, Dumbledore was very kind to me."

Just as she finished speaking the door slid open revealling two tall, dark haired boys, both of them very handsome, one had grey eyes, the other hazel with glasses perched on his nose.

"Nice summer, Evans?" The one with glasses asked, looking at Lily with an expression on his face that one could only call adoration.

"Fine, Potter, all the better because of the absence of an arrogant git."

Arcadia found herself giggling involantarily when Lily said that and the boys turned to her, not having noticed her presence previously.

One of them snorted with laughter. "Is your hair _pink_?"

"No shit, Sherlock." Arcadia replied quickly, noting the looks of confusion on both their faces, and the grin spreading across Lily's.

"Your humour is wasted on them, they have no idea who you were talking about." Lily responded, still smiling.

"It's good to know someone in here understands me, muggle-born?" She asked happily.

Lily nodded.

The boy with the grey eyes looked at them curiously. "Who's your friend, Evans? I don't think I've seen her around here before." He flashed a flirtatious smile at Arcadia who merely snorted in reply.

"Don't even try it." She said sharply."I'm not interested, nor will I ever be."

The boy merely shrugged and grinned. "Sirius Black." He said.

"James Potter." The boy with the dark hair and glasses looked away from Lily for a second to meet Arcadia's gaze.

"Remus Lupin," A boy with shabby robes and sandy hair smiled kindly at her. "and this is Peter Pettigrew." He gestured to a plump, scared looking boy with blonde hair and watery eyes.

"I'm Arcadia Hayes, I just transferred here from America."

"America? You don't sound American." Sirius said, confused.

"My step-father's job means we move around alot. I'm from Ireland originally." She smiled back kindly.

"What does he do?" Remus asked politely.

"Oh, he works for some company that makes cars, before you ask, yes he is a muggle, I'm muggle-born. My mother married him several years after my father ran away, then she died." Sadness clouded her features for a second but she shaked it off and went back to plucking idly at the strings on her guitar, strumming a simple melody.

The other occupants of the compartment shared a confused look before the boys broke into a detailed conversation about quidditch, declaring that this year they would need a new beater, keeper and two chasers. Arcadia quickly figured out that James must have made captain as there was a shining badge pinned to his robes.

"Cady, do you play?"

She snapped her head up and ceased playing. She smiled at the use of a nickname, deciding maybe she would find friends this year after all.

"Of course, I used to be a beater, at my old school."

James and Sirius both looked at her oddly.

"Beater, but you're tiny!" Sirius exclaimed.

Without a seconds thought Cady leaned over and hit him on the arm. He let out a surprised yelp.

"Don't judge a book by it's cover." She smiled and engaged Lily in conversation, asking her about Hogwarts.


	2. Hogwarts

A.N- A quick update 'cause I had a surge of creativity.

Beggining Again

The train ride went by quickly, Cady found herself relaxing and enjoying the conversation with the self-proclaimed Marauders and Lily. She found Lily adn James' banter entertaining and had already guessed they were both harbouring feelings for eachother but Lily wasn't prepared to admit it yet.

After the train ride Lily informed Arcadia that they were to travel to the castle by carriage. When she saw them, Cady gasped slightly, they were being pulled by strange looking creatures that looked somewhat similar to horses. Lily looked at her strangely and shrugged it off, pulling her new friend into the last carriage, which, much to Lily's disapointment, was shared with the four boys from the train.

Cady sighed and brushed her hands through her butt-length pastel pink hair, looking up at the night sky.

"Arcadia, is your hair naturally like that?" Lily enquired politely.

"Yep, I was born with it, got me some weird looks growing up, but I don't mind I'm kinda used to it now. I don't think I have the heart to dye it." She smiled at her friend.

"It suits you, makes your eyes look brighter."

Cady, who wasn't accustomed to compliments blushed slightly and mumbled 'thanks' to Lily, who simply chuckled.

They sat in a comfortable silence as the carriage drew closer to the castle and Arcadia found herself suddenly nervous. Lily gave her an understanding look and a reassuring grin.

"You'll be fine."

She turned around, surprised to see the boy who had called himself Remus smiling at her.

"Thanks. Just gotta remember to breathe, I s'pose. It shouldn't be too bad 'cause I'm already sorted. I just don't tend to take to staring too kindly."

She hurried into the hall, trying her best to position herself behind Lily so that no-one would see her but it failed as she heard a few whispers regarding her being at the school, her appearance and why she was hanging around with the marauders from a few girls. She didn't understand it, but she felt her cheeks redden so she kept looking down until she took a seat beside Lily and watched absent-mindedly as a group of first years walked in.

She didn't pay much attention to the sorting, her mind was travelling to it's own little dreamland, Cady lost herself in her thoughts, completely oblivious to the guy sat across from her trying to talk to her.

She only snapped out of it when Lily pinched her on the arm.

"Cady, you okay?" She looked a little concerned.

"Oh, sorry. I was in a world of my own. I didn't mean to startle you." She blushed when she saw the boy across from her looking at her oddly and just put a little food on her plate and began to eat.

By the time everyone was finished and the headmaster had bid them goodnight, Arcadia noticed some sneering faces looking at her from around the table she assumed belonged to the Slytherins.

"Ignore them." She heard the voice of Sirius Black to her left and looked up.

"I was going to, but then again maybe I should try out for quidditch, wait for a match against Slytherin and get myself some sweet revenge." By the time she finished she saw him staring at her with a wide open mouth.

"Close that thing, don't wanna let the flys in, do you?" With that she skipped off, paying no particular attention to the strange looks she recieved.

Some of the first years being sheperded by Lily and Remus giggled at her, and she merely smiled back keeping pace with them because she didn't know the password for the portait.

One of them had the courage to talk to her, a boy just as tall as her with big green eyes and mousy brown hair. He asked her why she was skipping.

"Well, it's because I'm happy, probably. Or maybe it's because I'm just too cool for comprehension." She smiled brightly, pleased someone other than the marauders and Lily had made and effort to communicate with her.

She heard a chuckle behind her and looked to see a big group of Gryffindors looking at her, apparently she hadn't been as quite as usual.

She smiled sheepishly and let Lily past so she could walk up to The Fat Lady and say "Fairy Wings." The portrait swung open and they stepped inside. Arcadia along with the first years looked around in wonder, her eyes wide.

"Woah" She breathed, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear."Now, this is cool."

She didn't pay attention as the prefects explained to the first years about rooming, she figured she would just follow Lily. Cady walked over to the couches by the fire and plopped down happily.

"What do you think, better than your old school?" She looked up into the kind face of Remus Lupin.

"Way better, at the other school our common room wasn't half as big, or half as nice. Plus it was kinda crowded, and I don't get along well with lots of people."

Lupin laughed. "You don't seem the shy type, perhaps in time you might come out of your shell and realise it isn't so bad."

Cady made a face. "People mean embaressment."

The boy infront of her just smiled and shook his head then got up to go and talk to his friends.

Lily beckoned her over and lead her into the dorm which she would share with Lily and the only other Gryffindor sixth year, a girl named Annabel Smith who Lily said was nice, and quite outgoing.

The room had three beds, each with red and gold covers to match the house colours, at the end of one of the beds she noticed her trunk which she had coloured bright blue to match her eyes. It stood out, much like Cady herself, making it easy to find, which was good because she didn't have the best memory and tended to lose things easily.

She yawned and changed from her robes into her white vest and black shorts she used for pyjamas. Climbing under the covers, Cady whispered "Goodnight Lily." and fell fast asleep.


	3. Suspicious Minds

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, or anything you recognise.

Beggining Again

"That's not so bad." Cady said, looking down at her class list, the only thing she would change if she could would be the double potions she had that afternoon.

Lily peered over to the parchment in Cady's hand. "We have transfiguration, charms, defence against the dark arts and potions together. What I don't understand is why you picked divination, it's a load of rubbish."

Cady giggled. "Nah, it's not so bad, it's kinda fun if you're into all the seeing the future stuff. Plus, if most people think it's nonsense the class shouldn't be so big. Always look on the bright side of life." With that Cady rose from her seat and skipped out of the room, heading to her first class; Divination.

She knew where most things were after Lily showed her around so she knew that she'd need at least ten to twenty minutes if she wanted to get to the divination classroom on time. She wasn't paying much attention to were she was going so she bumped into someone and fell backwards onto the floor.

"Eeep. I'm so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going." She splurted her apology, swiftly rising to her feet and looked to realise the boy she had bumped into was a tall, rather frightening looking Slytherin.

"Watch where you're going." He spat at her then turned and left.

"Not very friendly, sheesh." She shrugged her shoulders and continued on her way.

When she got there she realised she was right, the class wasn't very big. Aside from herself there were two Hufflepuff girls, four Ravenclaws, a Gryffindor and two Slytherins. The teacher was a woman, she looked around fourty with a kind, wrinkled face and inquisitive eyes. She smiled at them and told them to take a seat in the big, comfortable looking chair sat around the tables. Each table seated two so they paired off in their respective quickly learned that they boy she was sat with was called John Adams and he was the kind, quiet type.

During the lesson they had a basic introduction to the subject and a lecture on the importance of Divination. All in, Cady thought it was an easy start, maybe a little too easy, usually when she thought something was easy she turned out to be terrible at it.

The rest of the day passed without much happening, but every proffessor seemed to be under the impression that they needed masses of homework to make up for the summer off. Cady herself had been given four essays and a dream diary to complete within the first two weeks.

"This is hard." Cady complained, she had been trying for hours to write the essay for potions on amortentia.

"Don't put it off. If you do you wont ever get it done." Lily replied.

"You sound like a teacher. Maybe you should consider it one day."

Lily smiled and went back to her work.

After another three quarters of an hour Cady had finished the essay and decided to go for a walk out on the grounds. Lily had protested saying that she could be caught as it was getting late but Arcadia just waved her off saying that if she did it would be her fault for being stupid enough to get caught.

Cady pulled her grey jacket closer to her as she stepped out of the castle, marvelling at the pretty sky. She decided swiftly that the best place to go would be the tree by the lake Lily had pointed out to her earlier. No-one was likely to go that far out looking for students. As she walked towards her destination, Cady Hayes regretted not putting something warmer on, it was only autumn but still she shivered in her white tank top, grey jacket and jeans.

The tree was huge, big enough for Cady to climb up onto one of the branches and sit comfortably looking out across the lake. She had always been fond of the outdoors, especially at night, things seemed to shimmer.

Over the next few months Cady had spent alot of her time by that tree, she had gotten remarkly good at avoiding the eyes of the caretaker and other proffessors at night.

Christmas was fast approaching and the students of Hogwarts were getting ready to return to their homes, as far as Cady had heard only a few would be staying. She herself was going to return to her step-fathers latest flat. She figured she would be lonely if she remained at Hogwarts because Lily was going to her parents' house.

One evening when they were packing everything up Lily asked "Cady, if you don't mind me asking, how did your mother die?"

Cady looked up, shocked. She hadn't expected that from Lily, she replied "Can I trust you?"

Lily nodded earnestly.

"Well, it was m-my step-father. She used to speak up for me when h-he called me names after he found out about my being a witch. Nobody knew how she died, they thought she was just ill, but she was p-poisoned. I don't know how I know, I g-guess I just did, sort of like a dream. That's why I took divination, maybe it will help me explain it." She looked down.

"Cady, how do you _know_ it was him? It could have been anyone."

"I just _do_. Lily, please don't tell anyone, I don't want them to think I'm even weirder." She chuckled lightly and finished packing her trunk.

"Well, if that's the case, do you really want to be going back there?"

"Not really, but I've got a feeling this is gonna be the last time, wish me luck." With that she left, hauling her bag with her, she had decided against taking her entire trunk, the bag she had contained enough clothes and shoes, plus the others she had left at home.


	4. Justice

Beggining Again

Cady's step-father could be described with only one word; enormous. As she watched him carefully she could see the springs in the chair collapse beneath him, his weight to much for the reinforced seat. He face was a ghastly shade of pink, enhancing the cruel smirk that played on his features as the girl set down her belongings and hesitantlywalked into the room, taking the farthest seat from his own.

Upon her arrival, Arcadia noticed some female belongings that weren't hers scattered in the hallway and frowned. _He's got another woman, I should have know. _The thought of some scantilly dressed bimbo parading around her home made Cady very angry, she knew that he was replacing her step-mother, and that when he got bored it was just going to end in the same way. _I've got to stop him, but how? The police? I suppose that could work. I've just got to get out without him being suspicious._

"H-how've you been?" She asked politely.

"Fine." He snapped, turning back to the television that commanded his attention. "We need milk." The way he said it made it sound like an order rather than a statement.

Cady smiled, this was the perfect oppurtunity, now she needed to make her explanation sound plausible. She got up, grabbed her small handbag and botled out the door, shouting about going down the the shops.

She knew she would need to get her story straight, simply stating that she had an instinctive feeling wouldn't be enough for the police.

* * *

"Well, he was fine when he first married her, but then he started acting weird and sneaking out a lot. She started to get sick and he acted the worried spouse and took care of her, at first there were slight improvements in her health, that was when I was away from school and it was my job to make meals and things for her. However, once I left again, she started going downhill. She was really weak, in constant pain, he stayed with her, sent me letters telling me how she was. I went to visit her a couple of times and he was always there, taking control of eveything. Nothing got in her room that he didn't know about. I th-think she was poisoned." Throughout her story Cady was looking into the eyes of the female police officer opposite her, she registered the disbelief and surprise etched onto her sturdy features.

"Are you sure, this is a pretty big accusation to make?" The officer asked.

Cady nodded.

"Can I go home now, I've told you all I know, isn;t there some kind of test you can do, to test if anything poisonous was ingested, like, can't you take some hair or something?" She knew exactly what she was talking about because, following the death, she had done a lot of research.

"Yes. There will be a thorough investigation, you can return home for now. We'll call you if we need you."

Arcadia nodded, rose from her chair and left with her head held high. She hurried to the local supermarket to purchase the milk she said she was getting so that he didn't get suspicious.

* * *

In the next few days Cady recieved a few calls from the police, checking her story and asking her more and more questions regarding her accusations. On christmas eve, something wonderful happened. They had discovered through hair samples that she had, in fact, been subjected to arsenic poisoning. She was right. As she watched her step-father escorted away from her home she laughed. It was not cheerful, just something. She had gotten her revenge now her mother could be at peace.

She rushed upstairs, having heard the unmistakable thud of and owl landing on her desk. She left her window open all the time now, just in case. The letter was from Lily.

_Cady,_

_How are you? _

_I hope you're having a nice holiday. It's wonderful hear, except my sister, Petunia, has met an awful boy, Vernon.I think she's told him about me being a witch, everytime he sees me he looks at me like I'm some sort of freak._

_Merry Christmas,_

_Love, Lily._

Cady grinned and began to compose her reply, telling Lily the wonderful news and attatching the present she had gotten for Lily, a pretty silver necklace with and emerald stone, to match her eyes.

_This is going to be a wonderful year,_ Cady thought, _but I don't think I can stay here, it's much to expensive, I'm going to have to get a job, uugh._

She sent off the owl and lay on her bed for a few minutes, thinking, before falling into a deep dreamless sleep.

* * *

Arcadia woke up Christmas morning and stretched like a cat. She pulled a comb through her long, curly pink hair and looked at her reflection in the mirror. _I look like a fairy. Pink hair, huge blue eyes and I'm tiny. _She chuckled at her own internal rambling and changed out of her pyjamas and into grey shorts and a white tank top, pulling her customary grey jacket on top.

She spent about an hour or so jogging around the small woodland area near her flat, as she passed a family walking a dog, laughing, smiling, she couldn't help but feel a little lonely. She suddenly couldn't wait to go back to Hogwarts, there she had Lily, and Annabel, who was quite nice to her and shared her love of muggle music.

Lily's reply arrived later that day, with a small package attatched. Cady anxiously read the letter;

_Cady,_

_That's great news, but where're you going to live, do you have any other relatives nearby?_

_Are you going to have to go to court and testify against him? I'm glad you've managed to settle it, and I hope he is found guilty, that way your mother will be at peace and you wont have to worry about him being around anymore._

_Thanks for the necklace, I love it, it goes great with the dress my parents got me, and I have some killer silver shoes that will complete the look. Now I just need somewhere to wear it. I hope you like yours, it's from me and Annabel really, we colaborated._

_See you soon,_

_Lily._

Cady smiled at the letter, before setting it on her bedside table and reaching for the package. She opened it carefully, wary about it's contents.

"Oh my, it's beautiful."

Encased in the small box was a charm bracelet, it was a small silver chain with a couple of charms already attatched one was a small intricately made rose that sparkled in the sunset, the other was by far the prettiest thing Cady had ever seen. It was a fairy, her hair flowing down her back, she was bent over pointing a tiny hand at nothing in particular. Cady felt her eyes moisten and her vision blurred as she smiled widely.

She went to close her curtains and made sure the owl was settled, she would reply in the morning.

The sun shined brightly as the small girl sat by the dining room table, writing quickly with a white quill and emerald ink.

_Lily,_

_It's perfect. Thank you so much._

_I don't know about the relatives thing, I was thinking, I could just work during the summer and rent a flat or something and stay in school for the rest of the holidays. I'm sure I'll work it out._

_Only a few days 'til we go back, I can't wait. If I'm honest it's quite lonely here, but I got a cat, he's a pretty ginger tom named Sherlock, I shall definately bring him back to the castle with me, I think he'll like you._

_Cady._

She tied the parchment to the owls leg and sent it away, calling her cat and moving swiftly to the comfy couch that sat in front of the television. She flicked idly through the news, stroking the now sleeping cat in her lap. There wasn't much happening so she turned off the television and settled with the book she had left on the arm of the couch, _The Lord of The Rings. _Cady was a bookworm at heart, but she was specific, she only really found interest in fantasy. She lived in her own little world most of the time, and when she found out she was a witch she was extatic.

* * *

When they returned to school, there was a buzz of excitement as everyone exchange news and Cady herself was looking out for her redheaded friend.

"Cady!" She heard the shout come from near the portrait hole as she rushed to greet her closest friend.

"Lily, it's so nice to see you again." A grin stretched across her features.

"How've you been?"

"Good, and you?"

"Amazing, Christmas was so much fun, we had some of the family over, Petunia made an announcement, she's _engaged _to that pig of a man, Vernon."

Cady laughed at her friends expression.

"Evans, there's a Hogsmeade weekend coming up, want to go with me?" The voice of James Potter startled Cady and she realised he was behind her.

"For the millionth time, Potter, no."

"You hurt me, Evans." He clutched at hischest comically.

"C'mon Cady, lets go unpack."

The two walked up into the dormitory and Cady realised something, Hogwarts _was _her home now.


	5. Quidditch

A.N. Thank you reviewers, and Lollie darling, of course I used that name, it's one of my favourites.

I don't own the wonderful world of Harry Potter.

Beggining Again

"Cady!"

She spun around quickly coming face to face with James Potter. She raised an eyebrow inquisitvely. "Yes?"

"Quidditch. You said you could play, right?" She nodded. "Well, our beater got on the wrong side of someone so he's been hexed and is unable to play for our match against Slytherin. I wouldn't be asking if we weren't so desperate, please, Hayes, come to ouir practice this evening, six o'clock and we'll see if we can make it work."

He turned and left before she could reply, not that she minded, it would be nice to play again she would have to locate her luck beaters bat that she kept in her trunk, it was lucky because her three year old cousin had signed it in her big, messy writing. Cady was very proud of her cousin, she was so sweet and innocent, everything Arcadia valued in a person, and she reminded her so much of her mother.

When Cady took off on her pesonalised broomstick- she had woven and tied ribbons of different colours along it- she felt free, James had told her that they would simply be playing a practice match using only one side of the pitch, it was Cady's and Sirius' job to keep the bludgers away from the team.

She flew swiftly, easily hitting the bludgers away for the majority of the match,s he was quite pleased with herself, once she managed to smack one of them so hard when it was soaring for James she shot it through one of the rings at the opposite side of the pitch. After that she'd heard Sirius shouting to James, "Oi, Prongs, I think Hayes will be good for the team, we might have to consider replacing Jones with her."

She felt a blush creep onto her face as she landed along with the other players. She saw the unmistakable red hair of her closest friend.

"Lily!" She shouted happily, running to her friend. "Did I do okay?"

"Okay? Of course you did, you could give Black a run for his money." She beamed.

The day of the match came and Cady was feeling terribly excited, though a little nervous. Lily assured her that she would do fine, saying she would be a great representative for the female's of Gryffindor as the only one currently on the team. Cady argued that she wasn't really _on _the team, but Lily wouldn't have any of it.

She trudged out onto the pitch in her red and gold robes, hearing the cheers of the Gryffindor house, as well as some of the Hufflepuffs and the Ravenclaws. She watched as James shook hands with the Slytherin captain, but it looked more like each was trying to do as much damage to the other as possible.

They took off on the blow of a whistle, Cady hovered, watching as the balls were released and the quaffle was thrown into the air.

The match was quite fast-paced, that was exactly what Cady liked about it, she had her work cut out for her, the opposing beaters were smacking bludgers at the Gryffindors like there was no tomorrow, but Cady was pleased to say she took out the Slytherin keeper with a well-aimed bludger, and she was pretty sure that one of the chasers was going to at least have a concussion from Sirius.

The Gryffindor chasers were on a roll, so far they had scored at least three goals apeice making the total 120-30 to them by the time that their seeker caught the snitch.

They all glided down to the ground and there was a big group hug-type thing that made Cady giggle aloud. A substantial number of Gryffindors poured onto the pitch as the rest of the spectators and proffesors departed. The Slytherin team walked towards the Gryffindors just as Cady was hugging Lily, one of them, Cady didn't know his name, sneered at them and said "Oh look, it's the marauders and their mudblood pals," The rest of the team laughed behind him and Cady could see both James and Sirius reach for their wands.

Both Cady and Lily spun around at the same time saying, "It's not worth it."

The same guy laughed and continued, "Worthless, the lot of you, maybe you girls could form your own little club too, I know, you could call yourselves _The Gryffindor Whores, _it's so fitting for you, after all, that's all you'll ever amount to." He turned to face his team, conversing quickly and Cady could hear a few mentions of her own, Lily's and Sirius' name as well as words like _freak, mudblood and blood traitor._

Cady glimpsed some of the Gryffindor team members holding James and Sirius back with anrgy looks on their faces. Cady decided in that instant that she wouldn't stand for this, they could badmouth her as much as they wanted, but when they brought the only people who had been nice to her into it to, she had to take action. No-one was expecting her to do anything so they didn't attempt to stop her when she skipped up and stopped just behind the frontman for the Slytherins. She cleared her throat loudly, and, once he turned Cady punched him in the nose and she heard a sickening crunch.

"You broke my nose!" He spat at her, clutching one hand to his face the other reaching for his wand.

Cady felt hands on her arms pulling her back and just as the boy managed to free his wand and being to shout a spell, she heard Sirius call "_Protego_" so that they didn't get hit by anything.

Just as Arcadia thought there was going to be a huge duel between the two opposing houses, a loud, irritated voice called out. "Wands away!" She looked around to see Proffessor McGonogall pushing her way through the crowd, frowing.

"What is the meaning of this? Who started this?"

The Slytherin was about to open his mouth when Cady spoke over him, "I did, Proffessor." She held her head high and waited for McGonogall to react.

She tutted and said, "Twenty points from Gryffindor, Miss Hayes, and ten from Slytherin, don't argue , I have no doubts about whether or not you provoked Miss Hayes." She turned to Cady, "Detention tonight, Eight o'clock, be at my office." With that she walked away, as did the Slytherin team.

Cady pivoted to see a shocked looking crowd of Gryffindors, some of them trying to hold back laughter. Lily said, "Why did you do that, now you've gone and gotten yourself detention and most likely a big angry mob of Slytherins trying to get back at you." She knew her friend was telling her off, even though she herself was trying not to smile.

"Well, what can I say Lil? It was totally worth it."


	6. Consequences

Beggining Again

The Gryffindors climbed through the portrait hole excitedly, Lily had told Cady that there was always a party after quidditch, the marauders made sure of it. The common room had been strung with Gryffindor banners in red and gold, the general effect, Cady thought, was rather entertaining. She couldn't help but get involved in the party, conversing with everyone around her. Times like this made Hogwarts truly feel like one big family.

Throughout the celebrations, Cady could hear a little nagging voice in her head telling her she was stupid for attacking the Slytherin, but she merely set all thoughts of the nights oncoming detention aside and went back to the festivities. Cady looked around for someone familiar to talk to. She could see James talking to Lily, probably trying to convince her to go out with him, Sirius lip-locking with a pretty fifth year girl called Abbie Carthy, Peter stuffing his face by the table loaded with food and Remus looking uncomfortable with the surrounding crowds, Cady thought he looked quite ill so she decided to go talk to him.

"Hello, Remus." She smiled brightly.

"Hey, Cady. Nice punch." He smiled back at her.

"I thought prefects were suppost to prevent violence?" She giggled a little.

"I must say, he did deserve it, truly he did, it was out of order for him to use that word, completely unacceptable." He shook his head.

"Remus, are you okay? You don't look to well." She looked up at him with concerned eyes noting he looked a little uncomfortable when she brought it up.

"Fine, just tired, I suppose I'd better get to bed, goodnight Cady." He turned and walked up the stairs that led into the boys dorms.

"Hmm, do I smell or something? I seem to be repelling people all round today." She sighed and sunk into one of the only free chairs in the room, directly oppossite from Sirius and Abbie. The sight made her extremly uncomfortable, she really didn't like PDA's, so she reached for a discarded paper that was sat on the arm of her chair.

She didn't really find the _Daily Prophet _all that interesting, most of it was complete and utter nonsense but she stopped when she saw a page regarding the dark wizard gaining power. The thought of him scared Cady very much, she had heard that he wanted to rid the world of muggles and muggle-borns. _It's discusting, the amount of prejudice in this freaking world, _she thought.

She had spent at least an hour in thought and flicking idly through the _Prophet _before she noticed that most of the people from the common room had gotten up and left, she looked at the time quickly, panicking when she saw she pnly had ten minutes to get to her detention. She cursed under her breath and got up, quickly hurrying out the portrait hole and sprinting down the stairs.

By the time she got to McGonagall's office it was time for her detention and she recieved some strange looks form the waiting professor. She slowly caught her breath and waited for the woman to speak.

"Tonight, you shall be cleaning the trophies with the caretaker." She said "Without magic."

Cady grimaced, knowing it would take hours and that the caretaker would most certainly over work her.

"I don't expect you to be here again this year, Miss Hayes, in future you should learn to control you temper." Though she sounded stern Cady could sware she saw a smidge of pride on the professor's face.

"Okay." She said and walked to the trophy room, preparing herself for a late night. _This is going to be fun, I wish someone else had detention at least I wouldn't be lonely, guess I'll just have to deal with it. _She sighed and walked into the room.

Two hours and around twenty shiny trophies later Cady was sent back to the common room, she trudged silently, exhausted. When she stepped into the room she noticed someone elses was still down there, she looked around quickly to make sure he was the only one and tried to sneak up into the dorms without being seen. Whoever it was obviously wanted privacy and Cady wasn't one to interupt without good reason. However, when she neared the stairs he spoke, "Hello, Hayes. Fun detention?" The voice was that of the smug, womaniser, Sirius Black, but there was something different, he didn't sound his usual arrogant self and Cady wondered if something was wrong.

"Yes, I suppose, growing up a muggle is good sometimes, it means cleaning isn't so bad because you're already used to it." She replied simply.

He chuckled quietly. "Of course. You don't have to go, you know? I wont bite."

Cady smiled and walked over to the chair by the fireplace and sat down, running her fingers through long, pink hair, detangling it. She looked up and observed the boy sitting opposite her, there was something in his grey eyes that wasn't there earlier, it looked kind of like sadness. She decided she might as well ask, he obviously wanted to talk.

"Sirius, are you okay?"

He stiffened slightly before replying slowly. "Yes, no, I don't know. It's just... well, you know my family are all purebloods right?" She nodded. "Well they're big supporters of the whole muggles and muggle-borns are scum theory, it's just too much sometimes." He sighed.

"You know, you don't have to do what they say, you are your own person and entitled to your own opinion. They don't treat you well, do they?" She looked up, patiently.

He shook his head. "Not really, they don't approve of who I chose for friends, and it's even worse because I was put into Gryffindor, not Slytherin like the rest of the family. I wont be like them though."

Cady figured that was enough of that conversation so she started a new one, figuring there probably wouldn't be much use in her going to be now, it was a sunday tomorrow so she could sleep in the morning.

"How long has James been pestering Lily then?" She asked, curious because she knew if she asked Lily herself she would launch into a big Potter-is-a-Prat rant.

"Since first year really. He claims it was love at first sight." He laughed again.

They spent the whole night talking, about pretty much everything, school, home, their friends, Sirius asked Cady a lot about her previous Wizarding academies. By the time morning came neither of them were all that tired so they just stayed up and waited for their friends.

Cady was pleased because she had gotten to know someone properly who wasn't Lily or Annabel, three friends in one year, she was on a roll.


	7. New Professor

Beggining Again

The day after the match was quite quiet, the students had been informed that their Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher would be away for a month or two due to personal reasons so they would be having a covering professor, Cady thought her name was Professor didn't really mind, as long as the new teacher was just as good as the last one, DADA was one of Cady's favourite subjects because it was practical.

On Monday morning the students were gathered around the door to the DADA classroom talking amongst themselves when a short woman, only a tiny bit taller than Cady opened the door and caled them in, she had short light brown hair and light brown eyes which shone the colour of honey when the light hit her right. She told them all that she would be sitting them in a different order so that she knew where everyone was and she could learn their names properly. She called out people and paired them up, Cady was one of the last to be seated, she was with Sirius Black, which made her smile because at least she got along with him, poor Lily had been placed with James Potter.

"Good morrow." She said brightly, nearly bouncing with excitement in her seat. She couldn't wait to get onto some practical magic, she sincerly hoped they got the chance to try the patronus charm, she had read about it a while back and had been interested to know what fom her own would take.

"Morning." Sirius said before scribbling a note and throwing it at James.

Cady refocused herself and watched the woman at the front of the class as she began to explain that they would be trying non-verbal spells for a while, and that whoever first managed it would be rewarded with twenty points for his or her house. Cady wasn't realy bothered by the prize, she knew that if she won the points one of the marauders would probably just have them taken from the house by the end of the day.

Something small hit her in the face, making her a little annoyed, she looked down to realise it was the note that Sirius and James had been passing. Sirius reached over to take it when she picked it up and unfolded it carefully, regarding the messy handwriting of the two boys. What she saw made her laugh out loud;

_Prongs, you got lucky then, maybe this is your chance._

_**I'll try, Evans seems to be giving me the cold shoulder. We'll have to convince Hayes to put in a good word for us, they're friends right?**_

_Yeah, I think so. We'll have to do some planning soon, our time is coming._

_**Yes, we'll have to talk to Moony and Wormtail. Maybe you can work some of your charm on the girl next to you and get me my date, I need my Lily flower.**_

Cady snorted with laughter and grabbed her own quill, quickly scrawling in her loopy writing on the bottom of the note:

_**James, if you want to get Lily then maybe you should lay off the scary stalker ways, and no way would anything Sirius did persuade me to do anything, I don't respond well to womanising.**_

She threw the note at the back of Potter's head and watched him read it, quietly chuckling to himself. He got the note back to Sirius and they continued passing it back and forth for the rest of the lesson. Cady guessed they were planning another prank on Severus Snape, the Slytherin boy who excelled in potions and was good friends with Lily.

She barely registered it when they were asked to try and fill up the goblets in front of them with water silently, she was busy thinking about what she was going to do when summer came around, she settled on trying to contact her brother, who was twenty one and in the army, if he knew of any relatives near-by, she hadn't contacted him since christmas but she knew he was busy so she rarely sent letters to him.

She qucikly shook her head and realised Sirius was talking to her.

"Hayes, you even there? You seem pretty spaced out."

She waved him off absently, focusing on the spell.

_Aguamenti. Aguamenti. Aguamenti!_

She continually chanted in her head, staring at the glass goblet in front of her, she looked up and across the room to see a Slytherin boy had managed to half-fill his goblet and she heard the professor praising him saying it was "Excellent work for a first try."

When the professor walked past Lily she sneered, which made Cady consider her earlier judgement on the woman, once she had made a few slightly snide comments about the work o some of the Gryffindor students, Cady decided she did not like her at all, she got angry because she felt protective over the people in her house.

_Aguamenti!_

A couple of people, including Lily had managed to get some water into their glasses, and Cady could hear a few hushed whispers of the spell they needed to perform. She stopped focusing on the goblet and simply looked ahead of her, her eyes boring into the back of the successful Slytherin boy's head.

_AGUAMENTI!_

A rush of water tipped over the boy in front of her's head, soaking him and his robes. The sight made Cady giggle, she knew it was her who had done it, and she knew why. She was _jealous, _she had never had much luck with the more complex spells, it usually took her a lot of practice to get something right and seeing him do it without much effort made her green with envy.

The professor turned around angrily.

"Who did that?" She practically screamed, her shrill voice stinging Arcadia's ears. She looked around, trying to guess by the looks on everyone's faces when her eyes finally rested on Cady. "You. It was you." She pointed a small finger at Cady's face and the Slytherin boy couldn't agree more with her accusations, he begun to say he could practically fell her eyes staring at him. Cady opened her mouth to say something when the voice of Sirius Black cut across her.

"How do you know it was Cady. It could have been anyone in the room, for all we know, it could have been you." His comment made a few of the people in the room laugh quietly, probably at the absurdity of the statement.

"Young man, you will hold your tongue when you are in my classroom." She looked down at a rather ugly watch strapped around her wrist. "Ten points from Gryffindor. Class dismissed." She waddled to the front of the room leaning on her desk and glaring as the students filed out.

Cady wove her wand into her hair, making sure it was secure before heading down to the great hall for lunch.

"That _was _you, wasn't it?" She looked to her side to see Lily Evans looking at her with a mixture of dissapointment and accusation.

Cady nodded, "I guess it was just luck." She didn't really want to tell her closest friend that she had been jealous of someone just because they had performed better than her.

"Some luck, did you see his face?" The voice came from behind her, it was James Potter, who was walking with his fellow Marauders, trying to catch up with Lily.

"Priceless." Cady said, taking a seat at the Gryffindor table and picking some of the strawberries from a bowl infront of her.

"Evans, it's Hogsmeade this weekend, want to go with me?" James asked hopefully.

"Fat chance Potter, me and Cady are going together." She replied.

"We are?" Cady asked, she had never really bothered going to the small village close to the school before, she usually spent that time alone in the dorm with her precious guitar.

"Yes, we are. There's going to be a dance at easter, we prefects have to help plan it, and we need to go dress shopping."

"Dresses? Oh, I don't dance, I don't think I'll be going." She simply stated. "I'll still come shopping with you though, you'll need my opinion." She smiled and went back to her fruit, internally cursing herself for saying that infront of so many people, now they would want to prove her wrong, she knew how friends worked. To avoid any discussion she got up and skipped off to divination.


	8. Shopping Surprise

Beggining Again

Cady had avoided any more trouble for the rest of the week, she still found the new DADA teacher unbearable and noticed the woman had a dislike for most of the Gryffindors in the room, she preffered to stick with the Slytherins, often awarding points for no particular reason.

Arcadia Hayes was not looking forward to the dress shopping that she was most definately going to have to go through with Lily and Annabel, the two girls had practicaly pounced on her at nine o'clock on Saturday when she was still sound asleep in her bed, insisting that she hurried and got ready. She gritted her teeth and muttered something unintelligent before walking to the bathroom and taking a quick shower.

She wore her favourite blue shirtdress that day, deciding to dress lightly and comfortably, so that it wouldn't be half as difficult for her to change into the numerous dresses and, despite the cold, she opted against wearing jeans beneath the dress, instead pulling on a pair of white shorts that weren't visible beneath the dress. Lily had showed her how to dry her hair with magic so it didn't take long for her to brush it through and tie a blue ribbon under it. As soon as she proclaimed that she was ready Lily and Annabel grabbed her arms and dragged her down, through the common room and into the hall for breakfast before they left for Hogsmeade.

"So, Lily, when is this ball?" She asked curiously.

"April, on the last day of the term." Lily replied easily.

"Then why do we have to dress shop now?" She moaned.

"Well, Cady, if we go now we avoid the rush, don't we?" Annabel said, laughing at Cady's expression. "Plus, it's going to take some work to find a dress that goes with pink hair."

Lily giggled. "Yes, that will be the case, I have enough trouble with my hair, but _pink?_, that will be difficult."

Cady felt a tad angry at that, it irritated her when people made comments about her hair, especially when she thought said people were her friends.

"Oh, sorry, you know we didn't mean it like that, don't you?" Lily said hastily.

"It's fine." Cady said, a little coldly, she kept walking until they got to the first of the shops on their hitlist. The woman working there was only too happy to help them, telling them all about a ball she had attended when she was at Hogwarts and telling the girls she would help them find the perfect dresses.

"Hmm, we need to think of colours." She looked at Lily then prowled through the racks coming across a rather sparkly black dress, an emerald green one and a light gold gown and handing them to the girl. "Green will go beautifully with your hair and eyes, dear." She turned to Annabel, "How about..." She turned back and selected three pretty dresses all red and handed them to Annabel before sending her along with Lily ro change. "You my dear, perhaps..." She plucked a flimsy silver gown, a lavish white one and a bright blue one for Cady. "Try these." She smiled kindly and sent her on her way.

The three girls came out of their respective dressing rooms in each of the dresses cooing when the found one they liked and looking disapointed when they didn't. It only took the around an hour to find the dresses, they were quicker than Cady had anticipated. Lily went for the green dress that hugged her figure nicely and Annabel told her she had some shoes that would complete the look wonderfully. Annabel chose a scarlet halter neck dress that was tight around her waist and flowed into a delicate skirt that finished just above her knees. Cady wasn't so sure but the other three women assured her that her dress suited her and it didn't clash with her hair. On the inside Cady felt happy knowing she had such lovely friends and thought that she was an extremly lucky person.

"Where to next, ladies?" Annabel asked, linking arms with the girls.

"Well, we've got shoes and jewellry already so we needn't worry about that." Lily said, beaming.

"Is there a hair salon anywhere around here?" Cady asked, thinking.

"Yes. Just down that street, why?" Annabel awnsered.

"I was thinking, I need my hair cut, it's starting to get split at the ends, and I was thinking about getting a fringe. What do you think?" She said hesitantly.

Lily and Annabel nodded happily. "Yes, I think that would suit you. Do you want to head there now?" Lily asked.

"If you don't mind." Cady replied.

The three girls walked off chatting excitedly about what they thought the ball would be like, and who, if anyone, they thought they would go with. Lily even admitted that if Potter asked her nicely she might not turn him down which made both Annabel and Cady whoop, everyone except Lily seemed to notice they were a perfect match.

It took quite some time for Cady to have her hair cut and styled which was surprising because she would have assumed that having the use of magic would have sped things up a bit. When the witch told her it was finished Cady looked up and was shocked by what she saw in the mirror, she now had a side parting and a fringe that made her look, if possible, even more like she had just stepped out from a fairytale, she still had her hair down to her backside but now it had some layers added into it which made the curls more defined, the small changes seemed to make a big difference to the girl as a whole. She felt more confident knowing she looked how she did, she knew she stood out but now she begun to think it was in a good way.

She smiled as both her friends complimented her and they all want down to the three broomsticks after another hour spent in Honeydukes and some of the other stores.

"Oh, great. Would you look who it is." Lily muttered under her breath as they sat down and the Marauders entered all looking smug and Peter looking at James and Sirius with awe on his face.

Cady giggled, as did Annabel.

"Evans, didn't see you there." James Potter called claiming the seat beside Lily as his own and slinging an arm around her shoulder in a friendly way.

"What do you want?" The redhead snapped.

"That's not very friendly." James pouted. "Bought anything nice ladies?" He asked, still keeping his eyes on Lily.

"Hello." The soft voice of Remus Lupin said as Lily begun to lecture James on something or other. "You've changed you hair." He commented. "It suits you."

"Thank you." Cady smiled at him, of all the Marauders Remus was her favourite, he was always polite to her and constantly apologised for the antics of his friends to the girls. He was like a brother to Cady.

"Woah, Hayes you do look different." Sirius said.

Cady rolled her eyes and laughed.

"When's the next quidditch match, prongs?" Sirius called to his friend.

"In two weeks, mate. Oh, that reminds me, Cady, Jones has quit the team, after getting a girlfriend he decided practice didn't give him enough free time, want to join the team? Obviously that last match counts as your trial."

"Sure, I don't see why not." She shrugged and was about to say something when a man burst into the pub shouting, "They're here, he-who-must-not-be-named's minions. They're here!"


	9. Death Eaters

Beggining Again

"Death Eaters, here?" Annabel's voice was panicked and her eyes were darting around madly.

"It's probably just a false alarm, it's got to be right?" Lily asked but didn't look so sure.

"Yeah, probably just some nutter." Sirius said lightly, standing up. "I'm going to go have a look, wait here." He said. James and Remus followed him. Cady looked around noticing Peter had dissapeared, she shrugged it off, he was probably just scared.

"We can't let them go alone." Annabel said, shakily. "What if they really are out there, they're going to need help, right?" Cady admired her bravery, both she and Lily nodded.

Upon getting outside there was a collective gasp from the Gryffindor girls, he was right. Death eaters were prowling the streets sending curses at anybody who got in their way. They were warning people what was going to be, what Voldemort was going to do. It didn't take them long to spot James, Remus and Sirius, they were stood near the front of a small crowd that mostly consisted of scared students. Cady herself was petrified, but she knew in her heart that if she could do something to help she would. The girls walked through the small crowd to stand beside their friends.

The Death Eaters marched on, one of them sent a hex at a boy who had tripped in his haste and fallen into their path. It was horrible. As they neared the group Cady noticed something that made her smile, Lily had gripped James' arm through his jumper, she knew it was mainly because she was scared, but it still counted.

"Mudbloods beware." Hissed the figure at the front of the group. Both Cady and Lily shuddered slightly. The voice sounded familiar but she couldn't place it, maybe she was imagining things.

On second thoughts, maybe not, whoever it was has recognised them and sent curses at Lily, Sirius and Cady. James pushed Lily out of the way and Cady felt herself being pulled by strong, male arms, but she didn't know who it was. A sudden burst of anger hit her and before she could stop herself she had marched forward, out of the crowd. She knew it was a stupid thing to do, but she couldn't stop, it was an impulse reaction.

"Stop it! You're barbaric!" She screamed at them.

One of them lowered a hood, revealing Lucius Malfoy, a tall, blond boy who Cady recognised from Hogwarts.

"Oh, and what are you going to do about it? Filthy little Mudblood." He sneered at her but his face instantly fell as a cry of _stupefy _echoed from her left. He hadn't seen it coming so it hit him full on, sending him backwards.

Another of the cloaked figures retaliated with a spell Cady didn't recognise, the boy it hit was knocked to the floor, blood streaming from his nose.

The fighting continued, the Death Eaters were winning, and the students knew it, but they didn't give up. Them considered themselves lucky when the Death Eaters didn't use the killing curse on any of them. She had been lost in thought and not paying attention to the fight when something hit her, she shrieked in pain, if felt like her insides were burning and she fell to the floor, writhing in pain.

Someone had used _crucio _on her, someone had actually used an unforgivable curse. It stopped suddenly and Cady looked up through watery eyes to see that the one pointing his wand at Cady had been petrified and was now lying still on the ground.

The fight was over, several Professors had come along towards the end and protected as many students ad possible. They watched the remaining Death Eaters apparate away, holding on to their stunned friends. Cady stood up carefully, but her legs felt like jelly beneath her and she fell back down. Hands caught her just before she hit the ground and she felt herself lifted securely, she tilted her head to see who it was and came face to face with Sirius Black. She smiled kindly and looked at him, he didn't seem to have been hit by anything to bad, there were a couple of cuts and bruises coming up on his face.

"Th-thank you." She stuttered, shaking a little.

"No problem," He replied easily. "You okay?" Concern clouded his features and Cady was struck with the realisation of how handsome he was.

"Y-yes. Just a little dizzy I guess. It was stupid of me to do that wasn't it." It was more of at statement than a question. She leaned her head against his shoulder and surveyed the rest of the group, there weren't many injuries, and they were only minor, most of them would recover within an hour or two.

"Very stupid." He agreed. "Stupid, but brave, like a true Gryffindor." That made her smile widely and giggle. Another wave of dizziness struck her and before she knew it she was fast asleep in Sirius' arms.

When she woke, she was in a clean white bed in a sterile room. _The hospital wing, _she thought, _they ust have dropped me off here when they got back. _She looked around noting a few students in the other beds before getting up and assuring the nurse that she was completely fine now. She bade some of the friendlier students farewell and skipped off to find Lily and ask her if she knew where the shopping had gone.

It wasn't hard to find the girl, she was sat by the fire in the Gryffindor common room talking animatedly to Annabel.

"Cady!" They both shouted when they saw her. "Are you okay?" Came Lily's quiet voice.

Cady nodded. "Where's our shopping?" She asked quickly, hoping to get away from the subject of the mini-battle.

"We went back and got it, it's in the dorm now. All safe and sound." Annabel smiled before her face fell a little. "Why did you do that, Cady?" She asked softly.

"Do what?" Cady replied, knowing full well what they were talking about.

"Engage them? You should have just left it." Lily said, shaking her head.

"Well, in truth, this is, like, the first time I've had real friends, I guess I just felt protective is all. I couldn't just stand there and let the bad mouth us, you know?"

The two girls nodded and the room fell silent.

"Well, I guess at least we don't need to worry about dress shopping now." Annabel said later that night when they had all gone to bed. "However, we still need to get ourselves dates for this little ball of ours." She had a huge smile on her face as she looked at the other two girls.

"I've got one." Lily said quietly, blushing the same colour as her fiery hair.

"You said yes?" Cady asked knowing who it was just by Lily's reaction.

Lily nodded and the two girls pounced on her bed, cheering and hugging.

"Finally." Annabel said. "Now I on the other hand am lacking in that department, any suggestions ladies?" She asked with a cheeky smile gracing her features.

"Oh, how about Remus? He's nice." Lily said and Annabel's smile stretched out into a full blown grin.

"That's what I was thinking. He is nice, isn't he, a bit quite though. Oh well, I think I'll ask him soon." Annabel drifted off into her own little happy world.

"There's no need asking who you're going with." She said, looking at Cady.

"Why? I haven't got anyone on my mind." She said seriously.

"Oh, really? Well we saw the way you were looking at Black when he was helping you earlier, don't argue, it's true." Lily said stubbornly, noting the expression on Cady's face, it was one of confusion.

"I will never understand you." She said and flopped back onto her own bed, quickly falling asleep.


	10. Friends

Beggining Again

The castle was buzzing with news about the Death Eater attack, those who had been there had spread the story, and those who hadn't listened eagerly. A couple of times she heard mentions of her own name, but not often, and when she did it was usually followed with a 'Who's she?' or something to that effect. She didn't let it get to her, just carried on as normal, bottling up the frustration that she had been at Hogwarts for almost a year and still hardly anyone knew her name.

When she walked into Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom Professor Rogers gave her a significant look and went back to scribbling something rapidly on a piece of parchment and slipping it into her bag.

"Silence!" She shrieked across the room in her shrill voice. "As you are all aware there was a recent Death Eater attack nearby. Dumbledore has asked me to teach you all some good defencive skills in the case that you get trapped in a situation like that. I would like to make one thing clear; Do not be a hero." She shot Cady a glare. "Concentrate on protecting yourself as best you can, by no means should you engage them."

Cady snorted loudly and several heads turned towards her. She had been coming out of her shell a lot more recently and was prepared to say what she thought. Cady was a _very _opinionated person. She raised her hand and waited until Professor Rogers looked at her, waiting for her to speak.

"Professor, are you saying we should just leave our friends if we get attacked. If you ask me that's pure cowardice." The look on the Professor's face made Cady flinch, she looked ready to explode.

"What was your name again?"

Cady put her hand flat on the table and stood up angrily, she wasn't in a very good mood, she didn't want to be messed around. "My name is Cady Hayes, and I'm out, you're telling us to just leave our friends to die. It's barbaric." With that she stormed out of the room, ignoring the stares she got from some of the students as she walked away.

She heard some raised voices from the class as she left, but didn't pause to identify them, she just kept on going until she reached the main doors. She heard someone behind her and turned, only to be greeted by Albus Dumbledore, headmaster.

"Professor?" She asked warily.

"Miss Hayes, walk with me." He said and gestured to the grounds.

Cady kept pace with him, it wasn't until the neared the astronomy tower that he spoke again.

"Professor Rogers may have a different opinion to you, but that does not mean either of you are wrong. Arcadia, the most important thing to us is, of course, your safety, we are all a little entitled to our own opinion, aren't we?" He looked at her over his half moon spectacles.

Cady nodded and sighed. "I know, it's just my mother always used to stick up for me, so I'm just following her lead. I've probably screwed up my chances of having friends here two." She mumbled but stopped abruptly as she realised who she was talking to. Dumbledore would have more important things on his mind than a teenage girl's worries.

He surprised her by chuckling before he said, "I wouldn't jump to conclusions, Arcadia. In fact I think your friends will be looking for you now. Friends are the most important people you will ever know, Miss Hayes, in dark times like these we need them near." With that he dissapeared and Cady was left, questioning her judgement.

He was right, she did have friends, she had Lily and Annabel, and she was on good terms with the Marauders and the quidditch team. She was stupid to think that people not knowing her name was important, the people that mattered were those who knew her, who were friends. She smiled at her inner self, finding her sudden change of mood hilarious and unexplainable.

Later that day she sat by the lake, leaning against the big tree, to her right were the Marauders, talking, laughing and joking and to her left was Lily who had agreed to go outside with Cady and help her study for potions. The Marauders' laughter reached Cady and she noticed that something had changed, there was a slightly cruel undertone to the usual joyful sound. She looked up and noticed a lanky, greasy haired boy she believed to be called Severus Snape walking quickly, obviously trying to avoid the eyes of the four boys who made his time at Hogwarts hell.

Cady had never found anything particularly horrid about Snape, and she knew that Lily was good friends with him, she had once witnessed her standing up for her friend when the Marauders had decided to play yet another prank on him that involved turning his robes bright pink.

"Sev!" Lily called happily and the boy walked to her and greeted them both.

"What're you doing?" He asked, noting the books splayed out in front of Cady.

"Potions, I'm a disaster waiting to happen and Lily offered me some help. When your making a Draught of Living Death you put the asphodel in before you add the wormwood, right?" She asked Lily.

Snape laughed meanly. "No, that would ruin it. How could you think that?" He asked cruely.

Cady stuttered unable to form words. The boy in front of her had pretty much called her stupid. She stood up and brushed her hands over her eyes, wiping away the few tears that clouded her vision. She knew she was over-reacting, but it was just that time, she was having a very emotional day.

As she walked off she heard several shouts that sounded like spells come from three different male voices but she was to agitated to turn and check what was happening. She would find out some other time from Lily.

Once she got back to the dorms she flopped on her bed and closed her eyes, burrowing under her covers and falling asleep.

AN- I know, it's a short one, more character building than anything. Thanks to all the favourites, alerts, reads and reviews. You people inspire me to keep writing. Please review.


	11. Dancing with myself

**Beggining Again**

The next day Cady was greeted with laughter as she walked into the great hall, she looked around, hoping they weren't laughing at her. Then she spotted him.

Snape, Severus Snape had bubblegum pink hair. Cady glanced around and noticed some very pleased looking Marauders, so she guessed it was a prank of theirs. She couldn't help but feel a litle agitated, if they had done that to him, they must think her hair was humourous too. Suddenly, and overwhelming sensation overcame her, she skipped towards the boy with the pink hair and threw her arms around his lanky frame.

"We match!" She chanted in a singsong voice. "Did you do that for me?" She asked and watched as his face fell into a sneering expression. She heard a fresh chorus of laughter from behind her and several annoyed calls from the table in green.

Snape pushed her away, turning, red-faced, to his table. Cady gasped in mock-shock and ran a hand through her hair. "Fine. Be that way." She grumbled and walked over to her own table, taking a seat between Lily and Sirius.

Both of them gave her strange looks as she sat down but she brushed them off, picking up an apple from one of the bowls on the table. She took a bite and turned to the boy on her left.

"Sirius, why did you do that? It wasn't very nice." She asked inquisitively.

"He deserved it." He muttered and turned back to his conversation with Remus.

Cady rolled her eyes.

The day of the ball everyone was extremely excited, excited and anxious. Well, in Cady's case, just plain frightened. She had never been to a dance before and hadn't been asked by anyone so she harboured a deep fear of being stuck alone, in the corner being bitter. Lily had James, and Annabel had asked Remus- he had agreed, of course. The three Gryffindor sixth years were heading to the dorm rooms to get ready, though Cady didn't understand why they would need three whole hours. When she asked Annabel she merely said it's a precautionary thing, they needed time for mistakes.

Cady washed her hair and face, scrubbing off any dirt she had acquired during the and Annabel had insisted that they should be the ones doing her hair and make-up as they knew their friend didn't have much experience and wasn't too fond of the idea of getting dressed up.

After a tediously long amount of time, Cady got to look at herself in the full length mirror in their room.

Lily dried her hair magically, but did something to it so it fell in soft waves down her back instead of it's usual curls and a silver circlet with a pattern of flowers rested upon her hair. On her eyes they had applied a small amount of glittery silver eyeliner and mascara to bring out her eyes, Lily had remarked that they wouldn't need any foundation and Cady had refused to wear lipgloss- that stuff was just sticky and unnecessary. Her dress was beautiful, it was strapless with a tight bodice that clung to Cady's small frame and a skirt that flowed out in a delicate mass of white, ending just above her knees. She wore a pair of silver-white ballet flats on her feet, having protested when Annabel had tried to coax her into some high heels- she would only topple over and make a fool of herself.

The overall look was quite enchanting, the two girls had played on the 'fairy' look and even Cady- her own greatest critic- thought she did look good, well, better than usual anyway. Lily and Annabel look exquisite in their gowns, Cady thought, they were so lucky, both of them naturally beautiful and talented. She was happy that Lily had finally agreed to go out with James, even if it was only to the easter ball, she knew that they would make a great couple if Lily just gave him a and Annabel had a bet as to whether or not Lily and James would be a certified couple by the end of the night.

Down in the common room both Remus and James were waiting, Cady giggled as she saw the looks on their faces as the two girls beside her descended the stairs in their dresses. She couldn't help but feel a little lonely as she stood awkwardly, waiting for her friends to finish exchanging compliments.

"Lets go, shall we?" James held out his arm to Lily and escorted her down to the ball, he couldn't keep his eyes off her, neither could Remus with Annabel. Cady was overwhelmed with a sense of happiness that her closest friends got their fairytale ending.

The hall had been decorated beautifully, there were a number of tables surounding the dance floor and a table with drinks and refreshments sat in one corner. She spotted Sirius and Peter among the many make-up and jewelry clad girls crowding one of the tables and decided to head over, taking a seat beside Peter.

"Hello." She said kindly, she knew Peter didn't get half as much female attention as the rest of the Marauders, she herself had often wondered how he had gotten into such an exclusive social group.

"Hi, Cady." He smiled and did a small waving gesture before turning back and admiring the girls surrounding the self proclaimed 'ladies man', Sirius Black. She glanced at him quickly and turned away, not intersted in the little show he was putting on for them, flexing his muscles and making inane jokes.

"Hayes, you scrub up well." Sirius said when he finally noticed her.

"Likewise, Black." She chuckled lightly and got up, going to see Lily who was alone on the dancefloor, James had just gone to use the bathroom.

"Hey, Lily, having fun?" She asked, noting the girls slightly flustered appearance.

"Yes, oh, Cady. James is real sweet once you get to know him. I feel bad for rejecting him really."

Cady got a sudden feeling that something bad was going to happen, and soon. Just like after her mother's passing. Instinctively she pushed Lily back, luckily James had been there and he steadied her before she fell. That's when it happened...


	12. Comfort

**Beggining Again**

Cade froze as the cold muddy sludge poured over her head, covering her and spoiling the new white dress. She didn't know how to react as the room went silent and she felt eyes burning into her skin. Her cheeks flushed red but she doubted anyone could see them under the brown gloop that was trickling down her body. She lifted a hand to wipe some of it out of her eyes and then she heard it.

A snickering laugh from somewhere near the large crowd of Slytherins, she coulnd't place it but it sounded awfully familiar. That solitary sound echoed through the room, drilling into Cady's head. They were _laughing _at her. If one of them felt like that, maybe the rest of them were just trying to be kind, hiding their laughter behind coughs and quickened breathing.

"I knew I shouldn't have come." She whispered to no-one in particular and then turned, seeing the sympathetic faces of Lily and James and silently noting the gratitude in Lily's eyes, no-one would want to be the butt of this joke. It was obviously aimed for the two Gryffindor girls, someone was trying to get to them, make them feel worthless, drill into their heads that they were nothing more than _mudbloods, _and in Cady's eyes, it was working. She bolted from the room and heard a couple of hushed whispers, most of them asking who their friends thought had did it, but she ignored them.

It was cold outside, cold and rainy, but Cady continued on her way all the same. She headed for her favourite place on the castle grounds, a solitary tree by the lake. She decided there wasn't much point in trying to protect her dress, the white material had already turned a sickly brown colour as some of the mud washed away with the rain, she merely slumped to the ground and held her knees close to her chest, trying to imagine the times when she was younger and she and her mother would sit up for hours at night, just talking.

_Flashback_

_An eight year old Cady sat by the fire, leaning against her mother and twirling her fingers through her mother's pretty chocolate brown hair. Her mother was telling her a story about a princess who was trapped in a lonely forest, waiting for her rescuer._

_Cady loved hearing her mother's stories, they were always full of magic and wonder, inspiring Cady to invent her own tales that she would one day tell to her children. Her mother was a great storyteller._

_"When the young stable boy came out into the forest looking for the girl, as many had done before, something magical happened. The fairies who enchanted the wood cleared a path for him, deeming him worthy of the girl." She smiled dreamily at her daughter._

_Cady looked up. "Mam, why did the fairies let the the stable boy through but not the prince?"_

_"I don't know, pet. That's the way it is, the people we love aren't always the best out there, but if they love you in return, there's no problem. Love conquers all, my sweet." She put on a silly, wise voice that made Cady burst out laughing. _

_"I love you, mam."_

_"I love you too, pet. Now, time for bed." She ushered the girl off and sighed happily. Everything was going just the way she wanted it. Her daughter would make an amazing you woman, Evanna Hayes looked forward to that more than anything, she wanted to watch her daughter bloom like a flower in spring._

_End Flashback._

Cady had started crying, the sobs wracking her body. The cold and the rain did nothing to comfort the girl. Her mother had told her when she was small that the rain was angels tears, so the angels must be unhappy too. She had been so absorbed in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed the boy who had sat down beside her and was looking at her with concern in his youthful eyes.

"W-what do you w-want?" She asked, abesntly bringing her hand up to wipe the still flowing tears from her eyes.

"Just to see if you're okay, that was pretty horrid. Why did you leave like that?" Sirius asked, his voice soothing and gentle.

"Didn't you hear, they were _laughing _at me." She croaked, her voice hoarse from the sobbing.

"Not they, Cady, _he._" He looked over the girl and stood up quickly, holding out a hand to help her up.

"Where're you going?" She asked, nervously accepting his hand and he hauled her to her feet.

"_We _are going back inside, no-one's going to laugh. Promise." He said kindly and he begun to lead the girl towards the castle.

She looked at him questioningly, and shivered, it really was cold outside.

Sirius appeared to have noticed her and threw the jacket he had been wearing around her shoulders. He chuckled lightly after looking her over.

"Woah, Hayes, you look rebellious." He said jokingly, and Cady sound herself laughing unexpectedly.

She found herself unable to believe that the boy standing beside her had been there for her and quickly cheered her up, even convincing her to go back into a party she was completely apprehensive about _before _the mud.

When she walked in Cady noticed a couple of sympathetic looks but mostly she was ignored, no-one seemed to be paying attention to her, they were all too wound up in their dancing and socialising. Sirius threw an arm around her and steered her to the Marauder's table, pushing her into the empty seat beside Lily.

"Thanks, Cady. I'm sorry that happened, we'll find out who did it, scouts honour." Lily said kindly. "Come with me." She said and pulled the girl with her into the bathroom. "We need to get some of that gunk out of your hair and off your face." She began to scrub at the mud on Cady's face and within a couple of minutes it was back to it's usual pale self, her eyes were a little puffy, but she could look worse. They couldn't get the mud out of her hair and didn't even try with her dress, Lily did dry it for her though, because she was still rain soaked. Cady glanced in the mirror and caught exactly what Sirius was talking about. Her dress was mud splattered, but it looked kind of cool and the black jacket she was wearing had added an extra something to the outfit.

"Hmm, maybe I'll wear mud more often." Cady thought aloud, recieving a laugh from Lily as the two girls walked back to their table. Something happened then that Cady couldn't believe, as Lily and James, and Annabel and Remus paired off and walked onto the dancefloor, the handsome Sirius black asked Cady to dance. She knew that he was probably only taking pity on her, but she couldn't stop herself from agreeing and laughing as he twirled her around to the beat of the song. Cady was a terrible dancer, it came with the clumsiness, but she felt a lot more confident knowing there were a few people nearby who could stop her if she would fall and make a fool of herself.

As the song slowed and moved flawlessly into a new one, Cady's breath caught in her throat. She felt uncomfortable being that close to Sirius, they couldn't goof around to a slow-dancing song. Out of the corner of her eye she saw something that made her heart swell, Lily and James were _kissing, _it wasn't a face-eating kind of kiss, just a sweet, romantic gesture.

Arcadia leant into Sirius as he put his arms around her. "Thank you, Sirius." She said.

"For what?" He asked, confused.

"Building my confidence back up, and being so nice to me, you shouldn't have to ditch your big group of girls for me, look at them, they're all wearing shocked masks. Why don't you go ask one of them to dance?" She suggested, trying to get away from the uncomfortable situation.

"No problem, and what if I don't want to? Maybe I like dancing with someone with two left feet." He joked and Cady looked up, realising how close their faces were.

The next thing she knew, he kissed her.

**AN- Let me know what you think, guys and girls. I'd love to say a big thank you to all my readers and those of you who have favourited or alerted the for reading.**


	13. Revelations

**Beggining Again**

Cady pulled back in complete shock, a startled gasp escaping her mouth.

"W-what?" She stammered, looking to the boy infront of her.

"I'm sorry." He muttered sheepishly, not gracing her with eye-contact.

"Oh, don't apologise. You can pull your little prank now, I promise I wont cry this time." She said quickly, trying to mask the shame she was feeling.

He didn't reply, his smoldering grey eyes were looking at her face, probably searching for any sign that would give away what the girl was feeling.

She looked up quickly, then walked away, and, for the second time that night, Cady left the ball. _This time, _she thought, _no-ones going to come find me. I shouldn't have been so stupid, how could I think that he would actually bother with me? That we were friends? _She snorted aloud at that ridiculous thought.

She didn't venture out to the lake again, this time she was too tired to do anything more than stumble up to the Gryffindor common room and slump on one of the comfortable chairs to sleep.

She awoke later that night to the sound of a female voice calling her name.

"Cady? Cady?" Lily.

Her eyelids fluttered open and she raised an incredibly heavy hand to rub her tired eyes. "Yes?" She yawned.

"It's nearly one o'clock, shouldn't you be in the dorm by now?" She asked and Cady realised she had fallen asleep in the common room so she jumped up, hoping to get out of sight before the boy who had embaressed her came in.

"Yes, yes. I should, shouldn't I?" She said quickly and hurried up the stairs with Lily behind her.

"About Sirius..." Lily began but Cady cut her off.

"It doesn't matter Lily, there's nothing there. He probably only felt sorry for me, I mean, I did look a mess, didn't I?" She laughed half-heartedly before realising she was still wearing his jacket. As the got into the dorm she pulled it off and threw it at the wall, noticing the strange look she got from Annabel who was sat on her bed, brushing her hands through her curled hair.

She merely shook her head and hurried into the bathroom to rid herself of the dress that was caked with mud and a few blades of grass from her outdoor adventure. She changed into her comfortable nightwear, a pair of blue shorts and a black tanktop, after a quick shower and headed into the room were two girls waited, obviously wanting to discuss the nights events.

Cady smiled and turned to Lily. "How'd it go with James?"

"Oh, it was brilliant, he was very nice, I even agreed to go with him on the next trip to Hogsmeade." She blushed a deep shade of red.

"That's wonderful." Cady said at the same time Annabel proclaimed, "About time too!"

The three girls laughed.

"What about you and Remus?" Cady asked Annabel.

"I had fun, he looked a little reluctant, if I'm honest, I don't know why though, he's lovely, it might be self esteem issues." The girl mused, stroking an invisible beard.

"I'm very happy for you."Cady said shortly and burrowed under her covers for fear that they would bring up the very thing she was trying to forget.

"Look, Cady, we saw what happened, and Sirius is a prick for doing that, don't you want to talk about it?" Annabel said calmly.

_So predictable,_ Cady thought. "No." She called and made herself comfortable enough that she fell asleep within about ten minutes.

The next morning breakfast was a very awkward affair, Cady tried to tell Sirius that she understood but he wouldn't have any of it so she settled for outright ignoring him. The rest of the Marauders plus Lily and Annabel did their best to lighten the mood, but nothing was working. Cady was hurt, but not because he had kissed her, because he refused to move on and let them be friends again. It didn't bother her much that he had led her on, it was her fault for being weak, as her father would have said, she needed to learn to stand up for herself.

By the time Defense Against the Dark Arts came around Cady had distanced herself from everyone. She had completely forgotten that in that class she sat next to the very person she wanted nothing to do with. Sirius Black. To top it all off their Professor hadn't returned so they were stuck with the horrid substitute, Professor Rogers.

The short woman had decided to set them a task that involved duelling with their partners, something Cady was not happy about. Both she and Sirius stood, looking at eachother.

"Cady, you need to listen to me." He pleaded.

"No, just drop it Sirius." She sent a spell at him that he easily deflected.

"No. I wont drop it until you hear me out." He shot a body bind curse at the girl.

"I don't need to hear you, I understand, can't we just forget it ever happened?" She tried, he was so stubborn.

He sent a curse at her that knocked her to the ground. "Last night, when I kissed you, I wasn't trying to make a fool out of you, if that would have been my goal believe me, kissing you wouldn't have been my choice of technique, I could have done a lot worse."

_Arrogant jerk ,_Cady thought.

"When I kissed you, I _meant it, _Cady."

The girl stared at him in shock, surely he was just trying to wind her up. "You don't have to lie to make me feel better, you know?" She replied uncertainly.

"Don't you get it, I'm _not _lying." He practically yelled at her causing a few people to turn and stare at them which made Cady incredibly nervous.

"Oh." Was all she could say, she stood up and stared into his stormy grey eyes, realising then that he meant every word. Her heart skipped a beat as he leant down once more and pushed his lips onto hers.

She didn't pull back that time, it was wonderful. _When did I start feeling this way? _

"Mr Black, Miss Hayes detention tonight and fifty points from Gryffindor. I'll have none of that in my classroom."

Sirius pulled away and looked down at the girl with the pink hair and big blue eyes, laughing hysterically. It was infectious, within five minutes all the Gryffindors in the room were laughing too. This was a day Cady was never going to forget.


	14. Reassurance

**Beggining Again**

Later that day Cady was walking alongside Sirius on the way to the detention they had been given for the 'public display of affection' Cady couldn't help but think _this has got to be the greatest way to earn a detention, ever. _

"What d'you recon Rogers has in store for us?" She looked ahead, her eyes scanning the corridor outside the office for any sign of the short tempermental woman and sure enough she stepped out of the doorway and glared at the two teens with annoyance clear as day on her face.

"Who knows?" He replied and Cady laughed, even though it really wasn't all that funny. "Arcadia Hayes, you're really very odd, it's slightly worrying." She scowled and skipped ahead of him to the impatient professor.

"Good evening, ma'am." Cady gave a small curtsey.

"I'll have none of your cheek, girl." As Sirius closed in on them the Professor began to speak. " you will be serving your detention with Hagrid in the Forbidden Forest and you, Miss Hayes, shall be in here with me, I have a cupboard that is in need of cleaning."

Cady grimaced, she couldn't bear the thought of spending a few hours in the same room as the woman in front of her, she would surely loose her temper and act rashly.

Sirius seemed to know exactly how she felt because he spoke up, "Can't Cady go with Hagrid, surely if you need a cupboard cleaning it would be better to have someone taller who can reach all those pesky shelves." She could hear the humour in his voice, he was making height jokes in the presence of two very short people, the cheek of it.

Cady swatted his arm at the same time the professor awnsered, "No. I'll have none of that, besides, Black, I happen to be in the possession of a ladder and Hagrid asked for you. I doubt Miss Hayes would last long out in the forest at night." She smiled sickeningly and brushed Cady inside, shutting the door behind them. "Off to work, Miss Hayes, you'll not be leaving until you've finished."

Cady groaned and headed to the offending room. She gasped when she saw it.

It was a mess, there were books and jars scattered about the place, the shelves were falling because of the amount of things covering them.

"Wand please." Came the voice of Professor Rogers who was behind Cady with her hand held out. Cady knew better than to anger the woman, it would only result in more detentions so she pulled her wand free of her pocket and placed it in the professors hand before getting to work. It took hours before Cady was finally finished, the Professor had been very specific about the orders that her things were put in, the books had to be alphabetical and in size order, Cady had to re-lable all the jars and mend the broken shelves all with the stout woman's eyes burning into her skin.

"You may go now." She sneered at Cady. "Oh, don't get caught, if you do I for one will not explain the situation." She smirked as the girl walked out of the room with her head held high.

She didn't encounter much trouble on her way back up to the common room, but she did have to hide behind a large statue to avoid being seen by Peeves the Poltergeist. She clambered through the portrait hole tiredly, doing her best not to stumble and land painfully on her backside. Luckily someone was on the other side so she didn't have to worry too much.

"Thank you, whoever you are." She said happily.

"I'm no whoever, I'll have you know." The person replied and Cady looked up, noting that it was James Potter.

"Oh, really?" She said innocently. "'Cause I got no idea who you are." She smiled and headed up the stairs to the girls dorms. Both her room-mates were sleeping soundly so she had to be careful as she sneaked over to her bed and searched for her pyjamas.

"Aarg, it's no use." She mumbled after about ten minutes of relentless searching. She flopped down on her bed and stared at the ceiling, thinking about the eventful day that she had. She didn't know what to do about Sirius, sure she liked him, but did he really like her or was he merely leading her on because he was bored and currently single. Tired as she was, she still couldn't sleep so she wandered back into the common room to continue her ponderings.

A voice cut through the darkness. "He does like you, you know." Remus Lupin.

"Really? I'm not exactly his type, y'know, tall blonde and easy?" She said and was rewarded with a slight chuckle before she felt the couch sink slightly to her left where he must have sat down.

"Yes, I know what you mean, but James and Sirius are very close, and James agrees with me." His calm voice replied.

"He doesn't know me all that well, what if he's delusional?" She muttered quietly and felt a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

"Well, then he'll get to know you and like you all the more." He paused. "Why do you distancw yourself, Cady?"

The girl was shocked at the blunt question, she hadn't expected that from the boy who she knew to be the 'tame marauder'.

"Uh, I guess it's because I'm used to being alone, moving around a lot does that. Plus, I'm really not worth the time, I'm not such an interesting person, more plain than anything."

He chuckled at her response. "Arcadia Hayes, plain? Well I never, were you not the girl who told a first year that she was skipping simply because she was 'cool'?"

"Yes, but I'm also the 'don't judge a book by it's cover' girl, so I might look strange but I could be the most plain person ever to have existed." She mentally applauded herself for such a witty reply.

"But you aren't." He contradicted her and Cady found herself growing rather fond of the boy next to her, he was like another brother.

"Thank you, Remus." She said and stood to leave.

"For what?" He asked simply.

"Everything. You know Annabel?"

She could see his silhouette nodding in the moonlight.

"She likes you." She said simply and turned to go to bed, suddenly overwhelmed with exhaustion.


	15. It's a date

Beggining Again

The next morning when Cady walked into the common room she was greeted by a very happy Annabel, she was so happy, infact, that she nearly squeezed Cady to death in a very over-enthusiastic hug.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" She exclaimed so fast it only sounded like one word.

"For what?" The girl asked, confusion clouding her voice.

"Remus asked me out!"

"What's that got to do with me?" She feigned innocence.

"I heard what you said last night, I was going to come down and say hi, but then I heard you talking to Remus so I figured I'd leave you to it. I was waiting up for you." She added the last bit when she say Arcadia about to open her mouth to ask what she was doing up at that hour.

"It's okay, I guess." Cady said awkwardly, patting her friend on the back so that she would let go.

"We're going to Hogsmeade today." She stated with a huge grin plastered to her face.

"It's Hogsmeade, today?" Cady was truly confused.

Her friend nodded and giggled at Cady's expression.

"Oh dear, oh dear." She muttered.

"Cady, what ae you mumbling about, you know you've got a date, whether you deny it or not, it wont change anything. We saw you in Defence yesterday."

Cady felt a familiar blush creep up onto her cheeks.

"Get some confidence, dear." Her friend said cheerfully before turning and waltzing back over to where Remus was sitting completely engrossed in a book.

She felt an arm thrown over her shoulders and she looked up to see none other than Sirius Black, the boy who completely bamboozled Cady. She had no idea why he was so interested in her, like she had said to Remus, there really wasn't anything to outstanding about the girl, besides the pink hair and tendancy to skip rather than walk.

"Good morning, sunshine." She recited, trying to dull the burning she felt in her face when he leaned over and kissed her cheek.

"Up for Hogsmeade today, Hayes?" He said in a cheery manner.

"Of course." She replied quickly.

"Then lets go." He pulled her hand and dragged her out of the common room and down into the hall for food.

"Isn't it a little early to be going out?" She said hesitantly.

He burst into laughter. "Early? Cady, it's about half one."

"Oh. Guess I woke up late then, why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Annabel said your detention finished quite late, so we left you to it."

"That was nice of you, but completely unneccessary, you could have gone, no doubt Lily and James are already there and Remus and Annabel were only hanging around to keep you company, now I feel bad." She stopped when she realised she was rambling, nervous habit.

"Stop, stop, stop." He ordered. "I waited because I _want _to go with you, silly." He said, laughing at the blushing girl.

Once they had finished eating they headed out and down to the nearby village, Sirius looping his arm through Cady's in a very odd manner.

"Where to first, good sir?" She asked in a mock-medieval tone.

"Zonko's, my lady." The way he said the last bit made her blush even more. _When did I get so ... girly? _She asked herself.

They spent quite some time wandering around various different shops before they finally decided to head into The Three Broomsticks. Sirius got them each a butterbeer and they took a seat at an empty table by the window.

"What's your favourite colour?" He surprised her with the question and she took a moment to think.

"Silver, yours?"

"Red. Favourite subject?"

"Defence Against the Dark Arts."

"Same, favourite animal?"

"Dog. What is this, twenty questions?" She asked happily.

"Well, you said you didn't think I knew you much, so I'm in the process of getting to know you, then maybe you'll give in and decide that people do like you." He smiled cheekily and Cady realised Remus probably told him what she had said.

"Dang Marauders." She muttered and when he looked at her strangely she said "Nothing."

He surprised her once more by leaning over and brushing a bit of stray pink hair out of her face and placing a light kiss on her lips. She raised an eyebrow. "What's with the sudden show of affection?" She asked, confused.

He frowned a little. "What's wrong, Cady? If you still think this is a joke then you're wrong."

"It's not that." She said quickly. "I'm just wondering what I've done to deserve this."

He was about to reply when the door opened and their friends came in, spotting the two of them they all hurried over, taking seats around the table.

"How's it going?" Lily whispered to Cady while the boys talked loudly.

"Fine, not as scary as I thought." She replied in a hushed tone.

"Cady, you up for our last match of the year? It's against Slytherin, we need to get training." James called across the table.

"Sure, I'd quite like to wreak some havoc, winning the cup would be a great way of getting revenge against those pesky idiots." She said.

"Pesky? Strange word, I would have gone for horrid, evil, plotting and a number of words that shouldn't be said in the presence of women." Sirius had a dashing smile on his face that made Cady's heart swell. She was so lucky.


	16. Attack

Beggining Again

The rest of the year passed in the same way, she and Sirius had their occassional moments, but nothing commited, which, Cady did have to admit, was more than a little disapointing, they had a few dates, but still nothing. Sure the spark was still there, but there was nothing to ignite it. To Arcadia's surprise, Sirius didn't continue with his odd flings since the night of the ball, suggesting that maybe he did care for the girl, maybe he wanted to be with her, but for some reason he was holding back.

On the last day of school, Cady was quite sad, and confused, she had no idea where she would go, her brother had never replied, which worried her greatly, it wasn't like him to ignore letters, usually he responded within a week or two. _Maybe he's just busy, _Cady thought hopefully. She had told Lily that she would be staying with a made up aunt because she knew the girl would fret if she knew the real circumstances.

The train ride back consisted of many lame jokes, a few pranks pulled on unsuspecting Slytherins and a lot of awkward silences and stolen glances between Cady and Sirius. Remus and Annabel had developed a thriving relationship, they were very well suited to eachother, each harbouring a love of books, Annabel was a real dork at heart, and their personalities balanced out. Lily and James however was a different story, Lily had gone back to rejecting him, though she didn't do it with as much umph as she used to, she had openely admitted her liking for the boy to the girls who shared her dorm, but for completely unknown reasons she chose not to act on her feelings.

The Marauders all helped the girls with their trunks when they were getting off the train, and some difficult goodbyes were said including a very awkward parting between Arcadia and Sirius.

"Uh, well, I guess I'll see you next year." Cady mumbled and turned away.

"Wait! Cady!" He called and she turned to face him, hope etched onto her face.

"Yes?"

"Have a good summer." Came his disapointing reply.

"Oh, you too." She nodded and hauled her trunk off the platform. She had absolutely no idea where she would go so she simply sat for a while, on a wooden bench outside a park. She curled up in a ball and pulled her jacket closer to her when it started to rain minutes later. She didn't feel like getting up, she was too sleepy, so she just let the rain pour over her scrunched up face and settled for watching the cars driving past. _I must look odd, _she thought, _sat here, in the middle of some very unseasonal rain, not very well dressed for this sort of weather. _She smiled at the little mental image of herself she had and chuckled dryly.

She allowed her eyes to flutter closed, her imagination running away.

_The girl, curled up on the park bench was being watched, there were eyes from at least four different men all roaming over her small form, unconciously taking in the surroundings and calculating the quietest places, the emptiest routes. _

_One of them made a move, his dark trench coat flopping over his knees as he walked, he was getting closer and closer, but the girl didn't seem to notice, she had her eyes closed and looked oddly peaceful. The man closest to her smirked, this only made things easier, he twirled on the spot, checking to make sure no-one was looking and he carefully slid his arms under the girl, pulling her up. She was oddly light and a it was clear she was a deep sleeper from the way her eyes didn't even twitch as he gripped her tightly. _

_His friends were quietly stalking them as the man paced the streets into a shadowed ally, the man carrying the teen nodded his head as a signal to move in and they did as ordered._

Cady gasped and tried to sit up quickly, she had witnessed another odd vision, but as she opened her eyes she saw something, something that truly frightened her. Four men with grimly determined expressions on their worn faces were staring down at her. Her breath caught in her throat.

One of the men shook his head, tutting at the girl. He reached out and put a hand under her chin.

"Such a pretty girl shouldn't look so scared, we wont hurt you." She could hear the lie slithering it's way around the words.

"I-I'm supposed to believe you?" She spat with a mixture of anger and terror.

"Shhh." Another hushed her, placing a grubby finger over the girls mouth, she whimpered a little and squirmed out of his reach.

"Now, now. Behave." The one who had carried her slurred, she could smell alcohol polluting his words. He laid a hand on her shoulder and it only took her a split second to decide what she was going to do.

She ran, pushing her way through the four strangers, their strength was great as they grappled with her, wrapping arms around her waist, her arms, anywhere they could reach. She screamed and kicked and punched, but it wasn't working. The more she struggled the tighter their grip became, but she couldn't give up. She kept working even ad one of them grabbed her hair and yanked her head back harshly. _So much for not going to hurt me, _she thought angrily.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" She yelled, tears pouring from her eyes and clouding her vision. She screamed and screamed as loud as she could as they begun tearing at her clothes, pinning her down.

Her perseverance paid off, an angry looking man armed with what looked like a baseball bat in the darkness came storming around the corner, spying the girl, cold, beaten and cowering, still kicking out at the men attacking her, her clothes were dotted with rips and splotches of blood. The man reacted quickly, stepping forward and yelling himself, swinging his bat and catching one of the men in the side of the head, sending him stumbling backwards. His companions grabbed his arms and pulled him away hastily down the other end of the alley.

She looked to the man with the bat and whispered breathlessly. "Y-you saved my life." She could see him craning his neck to look and see if he could spy the criminals but they were long gone. He looked back to the harmed girl and thought for a second before pulling his coat off and wrapping it around her and leading her out of the alley. Cady couldn't have been more grateful, but she had to let the man know she needed to get her belongings, or something might happen to them.

He opened the door to what must have been his home and ushered the girl inside, she could hear a female voice calling "What was all that racket?" but she stopped as soon as she saw Arcadia. She looked at the girl apologetically and rushed over to the man, taking over leading her.

"I'll get her cleaned up." The womans voice was kind, and reminded her very much of her own mothers.

Cady looked back at the man. "Uh, sir? I don't mean to be a bother but my things- you see I fell asleep on the park bench and when I woke up, I was in that alley. I need to go and get them." Her voice was weak and before she had even finished her sentence the woman was shaking her head.

"Harold, get her things would you? We can't let the poor dear go out like this." Harold looked at the woman and nodded before turning and leaving the house. The woman turned back to the girl. "Come on, sweetie, I'll find you some nice clean clothes and you can take a shower, they might be a little big on you but they should do." She steered Cady up the stairs and into a large, pretty looking bathroom, handing the girl a towel. "Right, you get cleaned up, I'll bring your clothes along in a few minutes." She smiled kindly and left the room, shutting the door behind her.

She stood, letting the hot water trickle over her freshly bruised skin thinking about what had happened. She was very confused as to why she had seen it in her dream, seen it, but only a few seconds ahead of when it was actually happening. What use was a vision if she could do nothing to stop it, it was just cruel. She should have know better, though, better than to have been sleeping, letting her guard down, in the middle of London, and one of the areas with the highest crime rates. Something was bound to happen.

The thing that really astounded her was the fact that the people in this house, complete strangers were going out of their way to help a young girl who was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. They truly were the best kind of people, anyone would be lucky to have them for parents.

When the girl reluctantly stepped out of the shower, she wrapped the large towel securly around her and opened the door a little, letting the kind woman know that she was finished and that it was okay to enter.

When the woman entered the room again she gasped, Cady couldn't think why until she remembered that she must have at least some bruises forming, and cuts too. Her attackers were pretty brutal, and she knew that she shouldn't have resisted, resisting only made things worse, but she couldn't let that happen to her. She knew full well what their intentions would have been.

"Here, these are the closest thing we have to your size, they're my daughters, but she wont mind you borrowing them." She smiled and Cady returned it politely, accepting the bundle from the womans arms. "I'll be downstairs if you need me." She said and left.

The clothes were a little big, the black sweatpants were very long on her, so long she had to roll them up to just below the knee so that they would stay, the shirt wasn't so bad, just a simple white tanktop that was loose but quite comfortable. Cady turned when she was finished and noticed a mirror for the first time, she did indeed look shocking.

Her eyes looked gaunt, the skin that was showing was dotted with small grazes and bruises, her hair looked tangled, even when it was wet, and she looked extremely pale. She couldn't handle it for much longer so she turned and strode out of the room, going to see the woman downstairs and thank her for all she had done.

When she walked into the room the woman and Harold were at on the sofa, their hands intertwined, talking softly to each other. Cady's trunk was infront of them, looking a little wet but otherwise undamaged. She drew in a deep breath before speaking.

"T-thank you, for everything. I really do owe you my life, if there's anything I can do for you just let me know. I guess I'd better go, I don't want to intrude." She gave a weak smile but the woman had already opened her mouth to protest.

"We are not going to let you leave this house, you lady. What kind of people do you think we are? Now sit down and I'll go get you something to eat." Her voice was stern, but not angry or harsh in the slightest, it was _caring._

The man, Harold, patted the seat next to him and the girl reluctantly sat beside him. He looked at her carefully for a few moments before speaking.

"Hogwarts, huh?" She nodded. "Our little girl goes there too, we're so proud." He smiled at her.

"Oh, maybe we've met, what house is she in?"

"Gryffindor." He awnsered the pride burning in his voice.

"So am I, what's her -" She was cut off by a loud shout from outside the living room.

"CADY!" Cady's eyes widened as she saw Annabel launching herself down the stairs and at the girl sat on the sofa.

"Careful, Annie." Harold warned light heartedly.

"What happened to you, mom told me that dad saved some girl from the streets when she came to get some clothes, but, you? Oh my gosh are you okay?" She noted the bruises and the fragile state her friend was in.

Cady gulped and nodded but was saved as Annabel's mother brought Cady a bowl of soup on a tray.

"Thank you." Cady said politely at the same time Harold said, "Come on dear, I'll help you with the washing up."

Cady could tell they were giving her and Annabel some time alone and she was very grateful, she felt very envious of the girl in front of her all of a sudden. She busied herself with eating so that she wouldn't have to talk just yet, but she was soon stopped from using that as her excuse when the bowl was empty. She got up along with Annabel to take it through to the kitchen.

"Thank you, once again Mr and Mrs Smith. You really don't have to do this." She felt very shy all of a sudden.

"Nonsense, any friend of our Annie is a friend of ours, miss - ?" Harold paused.

"Hayes, Cady Hayes." She smiled kindly and Mrs Smith walked over to the girls pulling them both into a light hug.

"You can stay in Annie's room, if you like?" She looked to the girl.

"Yes, thank you. That would be great."

"Well, we're going now, bye mom, dad." Annabel said and Cady joined her in wishing them a good night.

Her friend helped her haul her trunk into the pretty, chocolate brown room with very pretty purple decorations that made the room feel like being in a chocolate factory.

Annabel walked over to the large bed in the middle of the room and sat down, patting the space opposite her for Cady, who immediatly flopped onto the bed.

Her friend gave her an odd look before saying,

"Right. You are going to tell me everything, Arcadia Hayes. I'm your friend, you're supposed to let me in on your problems. Now spill."

Cady did, she told Annabel everything, the visions, the homelessness, the attack. Pretty much everything that had gone on in her life for the last sixteen years. When she was finished she looked up to see her friend had tears in her eyes.

"Oh, Cady. Why didn't you tell us before?" She put an arm around her friend and used the other hand to wipe the moisture from her eyes.

"I don't know." She frowned at her friend's question.

"You are going to stay here all summer, and I will accept no alternatives, so don't even open your mouth. I can see that brain of yours working through your eyes. You Cady Hayes are going to get some sleep and then, tomorrow morning, you and I are going to have some serious retail therapy. My treat."

The way she said it made Cady burst out laughing, soon tears were pouring from her eyes uncontrollably and all the emotion from the last year of her life she had holed up was let out, she cried herself to sleep on the shoulder of one of her best friends.


	17. Retail therapy

Beggining Again

Cady woke up to the smell of bacon. She opened her eyes to see that she was lying on Annabel's bed, but the other girl wasn't in the room. She glanced at the small clock on the bedside table to see it was around eight, so she decided to get up and go find her friend.

Annabel pounced on her when she entered the small living room, she started talking, fast and excited.

"Right, we're headed into town after we've eaten and you're dressed. Dad's going to drive us in and pick us up when we're done. We need to get some serious retail therapy, it's been, like, months."

Cady grinned and rolled her eyes at her friend just as the kind faced woman with brown hair tied in a loose bun at the nape of her neck. In her hands were two identical plates, each had a bacon sandwich sliced in half rested upon them. She handed them to the girls, smiled and left the room.

An hour later the two girls were stood in the chocolate factory room, finishing getting themselves ready. Annabel leant Cady a little foundation to cover the light bruise shadowing her face and helped her pick out a blue light jacket, a pair of dark jeans and a white shirt that would cover the majority of her skin. Cady didn't think she looked that bad, her reflection the night before must have been enhanced by her weary eyes.

Annabel's parents had been lovely to the girl who they had helped out of a sticky situation the night before, they had insisted she stayed with them. Cady couldn't shake the feeling that the way they acted must have been the same way her own mother felt about her, it made her heart swell to see people so selflessly give up space in their home to a girl who they barely new.

On the car ride into town Annie's dad made a few bad jokes to try and break the silence that settled over them, even Annabel who was usually chatting non-stop had quitened down, Cady didn't know why, maybe she was just planning the most scenic route around town.

London was a very industrial looking town, the streets were full of people in suits and working clothes, most of them talking fast paced to eachother or over a phone. Annabel tugged on her arm and pulled her into an obscure looking clothes shop called 'Baslan's'.

"Whoa." Cady muttered as the entered the small store, there were some very strange looking garments, some odd medieval looking gowns and a selection of cloaks caught the girl's attention and she immediately hurried over.

"I thought you'd like it." Annabel said, a smug smile creeping onto her face. Cady could tell by looking at her friend that she wasn't too fond of the shop herself, but she was willing to browse if it made her friend happy.

"You thought right." Cady's face broke into a grin and she lifted a very pretty looking butt-length blue cloak that complimented the colour of her eyes from the rack. She held it up to herself and turned back to her friend who was grimacing at an odd looking bracelet hung over a wooden hand.

"I like it, it's your colour. You should have been in Ravenclaw." The girl smiled.

"Yes, but one, I'm not smart enough, and two, I like being with you guys too much." She heard her friend laugh lightly as she checked the price tag. Twenty pounds. It was a little expensive for Cady's liking so she frowned a little.

Annabel must have caught the small movement as she asked, "What's up?"

"The price of this." She reached to hang it back on the rail but her friend stopped her.

"No worries, my folks gave me some money fo us. My dad's a success in the world of muggles, hence the big house." She smiled kindly.

"Oh, I can't accept that, it's enough that you're letting me stay in your house. I don't really need this anyway, I'm pretty sure I wont die without a blue cloak." She chuckled at her own words, trying to break her friend's odd glare. She failed.

"Nonsense, they gave me the money and spend it we shall. Plus maybe you can impress a certain someone." She replied with a cheeky wink and took the garment from Cady striding confidently over to the counter where a middle aged woman stood, watching the two with a growing smile.

"Oh, you know that's hopeless. Have you seen how awkward it is for us to even be in the same room?"

"Cady, Cady, Cady. He likes you, we can tell, you like him, so what's the problem?" She raised a plucked brow.

"I guess I don't want to embaress myself, and I think you're wrong on the whole 'he likes me' thing, have you not seen how he's been acting. It's like I'm some sort of nuisance." She sighed heavily and the woman at the counter looked at her with clear, glassy eyes.

"Sweetie, give it a try."

Cady looked at her, shocked. _Since when did people get so nice? _She thought to herself, she merely laughed and shook her head at the womans comment.

Several long, intensive hours of shopping later the girls were sat in a cafe, chatting and laughing.

"This has been fun. I honestly can't thank you enough, Annie."

Her friend narrowed her eyes. "I get it. Consider your debt payed if you _stop _thanking me, thanking us."

Cady was about to open her mouth once more when her friend shoved a piece of cake into her face making the girl burst into laughter.

"Annabel, I needed that. Much appreciated." The girl giggled and scraped the substance off her face with a napkin.

"No problem, Cadykins." She replied.

"Cadykins?"

"Yeah, you kinda remind me of a little kid, so innocent." Her friend smiled wickedly and ducked out of the way as Cady launched her own dessert at the girl.

They spent the rest of the day playfully argueing and Cady could honestly say, she was so much happier with her step-father out of her life. If she was given the chance to go back, she knew she never, ever would.


	18. The return

Beggining Again

Cady had been living with Annabel for three weeks when she finally decided to write to the boy whom she was unsure of her relationship with.

_Sirius,_

_How's your summer been so far? We haven't spoken in a while now._

_Look, Sirius, I need to know what's going on between us. You keep sending me mixed signals, on the night of the dance, you couldn't keep away from me. Then we went out together and it was fun, but what happened next? Why did we stop talking?_

She scribbled over her words, putting a little too much pressure on the quill. Annabel entered the room just as Cady got so frustrated with her inability to put her thoughts to paper in a sensible manner that she snapped the quill in her hand.

"Whoa, Cady. Calm down. What are you trying to do?" She walked over to the pink haired girl and read the parchment that was on the small writing desk. Her face changed when she managed to decode the crossed out words. "Oh."

"Annie, I can't do it. I'm incapable of writing to him without sounding like a complete and utter stalker dork." She scrunched up her face and ripped the letter in half before tossing it into the bin.

"Cady, hon' you need to talk to him. You know, human interaction?" Her words had a humourous edge to them that lightened the mood in the room.

"I can't do that either. I don't want to sound like some desperate fangirl. It's stupid, I shouldn't be feeling like this, I barely know the boy. I've changed so much this year, Annabel, and I don't think I like it." She bit her lip and looked into the kind brown eyes of her friend.

"Everyone changes, Cady. You shouldn't regret it, think of it as maturing." She smiled but Cady couldn't bring herself to return it, she was too confused about her feelings.

"Sure, but look at me, when I came to Hogwarts I wasn't all interested in everyone else, I was my own person. Now I've gotten so- so _needy. _I don't think I'm the same Arcadia anymore." She frowned and looked down at the floor.

Annabel sighed apologetically and sat on the bed. "Well, maybe you should just focus on being you then. If he's interested in you, he'll chase you. Look at James and Lily."

Cady blinked, her friend was going against what she had said previously, taking a completely different view on the matter. _Maybe she's right, I mean,James doesn't really seem fazed by Lily's rejections, he keeps trying. If a guys really worth it he'll do that, right? _

"Thanks, Annie. At least I know what to do now." She hopped up from her chair and bounced to her trunk in the corner of the room.

"What're you doing?" Annabel asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Being me." Cady smiled and lifted her old guitar from the trunk, hanging the strap around her neck. "It's been a while." She cooed at the instrument and stroked it as if it was a person, oblivious to the huge smile spreading across the room's other occupant's face.

She sat down on the edge of the bed in the room, quickly deciding on the right tune to play. She began to strum an acoustic version of _Walking on Sunshine, _smiling at the familiar feel of her guitar strings under her fingers and the rhythm flowing through her body. She got completely engulfed in the song, singing happily and playing her beloved instrument. She didn't even notice that Annabel's mother had wandered into the room until she was finished and both women applauded.

"Cady, that was lovely." Annabel's mother smiled at the girl warmly.

"Thank you. You're right, Annie, being me is what I need. I think I'll go for a stroll." She pulled the guitar strap away from her and laid the instrument down on the bed.

She skipped happily out of the room, only vaguely aware of her friend calling her to wait and trying to catch up. She was engrossed entirely with the need to get out, to climb a tree, be wild and adventurous. Nature was her muse.

The park was vaguely empty, only a few children with parents walking through the green feilds, holding hands, laughing and chatting away. Annabel gave Cady an odd look as she waved to one of the young boys who had noticed the two of them.

"Cady, I know I said concentrate on you, but don't you think this is a little fast? Honestly I didn't expect you to descend so quickly into madness." Her voice was a little worried which made Cady love her all the more. It was nice, having friends, people you could rely on.

Arcadia found just the right spot and plopped down onto the grass, not worrying about getting her dress dirty. Her fashion-concious friend was a little more apprehensive but she eventually joined the girl.

Cady found a few daisies and begun stringing together a small chain.

"So, Annie, got any plans for the summer?"

"Besides having you commited to a mental home?" She asked and laughed when Cady's face creased up and she stuck her tongue out. "How mature. I was thinking about inviting Lily over for the last week of the holidays, then we could all go for the train together. Other than that nothing, we can do whatever you like."

"Sounds good." Something hit her like a train. "Wait, this is our final year?"

Annabel nodded.

"Noooooo, I don't want to grow up. I wanna be like Peter Pan." She wined and her friend gave her a peircing look.

"Don't be silly, Cady. This is only the beggining of the rest of our lives. This is the year we start to pick out careers and make decisions for ourselves."

"I have no idea what I want to do."

Annabel sighed and flopped back onto the ground, staring up into the clouds.

When Lily arrived both Cady and Annabel crushed her in one massive hug. They had begun to get bored and the arrival of their friend was bound to spice up the last week of the holidays.

"LILY! We've missed you so much." Annabel said, releasing the red haired girl just as she started to turn an unhealthy shade of purple.

The girl hadn't changed much over the summer, her hair was a little longer and there was something more mature in her eyes, but other than that she was exactly the same as she was when they had parted on platform 9 3/4 at the end of the school year.

"I've missed you guys too." She turned to Cady. "Why didn't you tell us the truth, hey?" The look in her eyes was so scary that the girl cowered into Annabel.

"Lily, it's okay. She promised not to hide anything anymore."

Cady peeped around her friend and saw the look in the red head's eyes soften.

"I'm sorry." She had an expression on her face like a guilty child.

The girls spent the rest of the night catching up, Lily told them both that she had been in contact with one James Potter during the summer and that she might agree to go out with them. This made both Cady and Annabel roll their eyes because she had said the same thing last year and when they looked to be getting on, Lily distanced herself from him again and went back to her refusal.

They stayed up late most nights, including the night before Hogwarts, talking about things like boys and school and what they thought they would do in the future. Cady came to the conclusion that she would be serving tea for nice old people who thought she was their grandchild, both Lily and Annabel laughed when she said this, but neither of them told her that she could do better than that, they knew her well enough to just leave her in her happy little world.

On the morning they had to catch the train, it was all quite chaotic, they had all packed the night before, but that didn't prevent the panic. Lily had checked and re-organised her trunk several times and Annabel was fretting over what she should wear. Lily tried to tell her that it didn't really matter because she would have to change into robed anyway but the girl wouldn't have any of it. She tried on numerous different outfits before picking 'the one' - a nice red blouse and a pair of dark jeans. Cady had just thrown everything into her trunk in a jumble, then she realised she didn't have room for her guitar so she tried to make some but it didn't work, she would have to carry it. Cady observed herself in the mirror, noting that her hair looked quite wild and untamable so she didn't really bother and she just threw the pretty blue cloak she hadn't yet worn on over her white shirtdress.

By the time they were all ready they only had about twenty minutes until the train so they all hurried into Annabel's father's car. They arrived with around five minutes to spare, Cady noticed when they had walked through the barrier that almost everyone was already on board so there would not be many seats free. They searched for a compartment hopelessly before settling in the one that had four very familiar boys inside.

Annabel sat between Remus and Sirius, Lily opposite her next to Peter and Cady on her other side. James looked a little hurt that Lily didn't sit with him but it soon passed.

"Hello, everyone, how was summer?" Annabel asked cheerfully, leaning into Remus with a smile on her face.

She recieved grumbles of 'allright' from the boys.

"Fantastic, dear, but I was staying with this real weirdo for most of it, I swear you should have seen her." Cady teased and Annabel stuck her tongue out.

"How immature." Lily noted, then she looked to her watch and announced that she had to go to the prefects compartment.

Cady wasn't surprised when both Remus and Annabel got up with her, she knew Annabel had been made prefect when Lily had become head girl and Remus was already a prefect. She was shocked, however, when James rose to leave too. Lily gave him a peircing look.

"You can't come with us James, prefects only." She looked a little irritated but James only grinned.

"Yes, I can, Lily flower, Head Boy." His smile was so wide Cady expected to see his face split.

The look on Lily's face was priceless.

"You? Head Boy?" She asked in disbelief.

James nodded and ushered her out of the room, muttering smugly about not wanting to be late.

Cady looked around and noticed it was only herself, Peter and Sirius left in the compartment. Peter's watery eyes shifted from one to the other, expecting something. The girl raised an eyebrow at him and he quickly left muttering something about 'going to the bathroom'.

"Hello, Sirius Black." She said dreamily, setting her guitar down beside her trunk and making sure it was stable.

"What's with the formality?" He asked, confused.

"Oh, I was only being polite." She frowned a little at the look on his face.

"You trying out for beater this year, Hayes?"

She nodded. "I think I will, actually, it's a good way of venting anger." She smiled innocently. "Are you?"

"Naturally, what would Gryffindor do without it's star player?" He was slipping back into his arrogant self which made Cady smile, the awkwardness was fading.

"Hmm, I don't know, win the league, maybe?" She laughed as his frowned and looked out the window grumpily.

"Says the half pint." He replied, even though it didn't really make sense.

_Oh, he went there, _Cady thought she narrowed her eyes at the handsome boy. In the blink of an eye she had launched herself at him and was pummeling his arm. She couldn't help but giggle hysterically as he swore like a sailor. She leaned back into her seat, her eyes alight with joy.

"What was that for?" He was clueless, hodling his injured arm.

"You insulted my height." She was still smiling.

"Well, you insulted my abilities." He gave a cheeky grin at his clever response.

"What abilities?" She laughed as the grin dripped off his face and was replaced with a scowl that made him look like a brooding rock star. "Your face will get stuck like that if you aren't careful."

This made him smile a little, she could see him trying to hold it back, she didn't know why though, what she said hadn't really been _that _funny.

Cady's eyes roamed over his handsome face and her heart gave an involantary pull. He really did have it all, looks, charm, wit, humour, somewhere in that head there might have even been a little intelligence, behind the arrogance of course. She chuckled at her description and the boy gave her a scrutinizing look. Maybe seventh year wasn't going to be as bad as she thought.


	19. Hair

**AN. Sorry for the wait, had a bout of writers block, then I was struck with a brainwave for another story. Thanks fo reading.**

Beggining Again

The rest of the train ride to Hogwarts was pretty uneventful, Cady and Sirius played a few games of exploding snap and everyone caught up on the summers news. Cady neglected to tell the others about the beggining of her holidays, she didn't see the need for them to know. To everyone's surprise Peter didn't return, it appeared he hadn't left his trunk in the compartment either because when they had all hauled their's away it was left empty.

"Maybe he's got a girl." Cady said but James and Sirius burst into laughter.

"Peter? A girlfriend? C'mon Cady, with us around who would settle for Peter?" That was Sirius and he was rewarded with a hard hit to the arm and the ego from Cady.

"He's your friend, jerk. Stop being so arrogant and maybe someone will settle for you."

His smile grew and she practically saw the thought hit him. "Plenty of people have settled for me, Cady darling, how else do you think I've earned my reputation?"

She frowned at him. "Secretly I think you may just pay these women off because they've discovered your secret so there's nothing else you can do."

"What secret?" He looked a little anxious.

"You know, the gay thing." She chuckled at his priceless expression.

James dropped his voice to a whisper. "How did you know? He told you before he told me?" He gave Sirius a girly slap. "Bitch."

Cady was in hysterics, tears were rolling down her cheeks and she was glad she had neglected to use any make up that morning otherwise she would be attending the Hogwarts feast looking like a clown.

Lily appeared beside May as she was about to climb into a carriage.

"Hey, Lily. Where's Annabel?"

"Oh, she's with Remus I think, I saw them shepherding the first years towards Hagrid." She said with a dismissive hand wave.

"I get it." Cady nodded and clambered over James' long legs trying not to trip herself up, taking a seat against the side of the carriage. "You're such an obstacle." She muttered to the boy with the glasses and wild hair.

"Is that supposed to be an insult, shorty?" He grinned at her.

She frowned and stuck her tongue out.

Sirius was still rubbing his arm. "Careful, Prongs, or it'll get violent." His handsome face creased up.

"Excuse me, but did you just call me it?" She balled her hand into a fist.

"Well, we've come to the conclusion over the summer that there's no way you're a girl. I mean, you hit like a guy, and you look like a fairy. So you must be something wierd." He looked pleased with himself.

"Oh, Sirius, I can see why all the girls are so charmed by you now." She smiled innocently.

"You mean besides my good looks?"

"Yeah, they pity you." She smiled at him as both James and Lily burst into simultaneous laughter.

Sirius' face turned beet red and his jaw dropped.

"You'd better shut that thing before you start catching flies."

The great hall looked as extraordinary as it had before they had left for the summer. The ceiling was showing them a beautiful starry sky. The four house tables were beggining to fill up with chattering students and the six Gryffindor's took their usual seats at the end nearest the door. As the last few people came through the doors they finally saw the mousy boy again. He was walking beside a large group of Slytherins with sneering expressions plastered to all their faces. Sirius and James glared at them and gave Peter strange looks before he joined them.

Cady could see James about to open his mouth to interrogate the boy but stopped as a group of frightened looking first years were lead through the doors by a very stern-faced McGonagall and up to the stool infront of the staff table.

Cady turned to Annabel who was sat beside her. "Is it me or are they getting smaller and smaller?"

"You can't talk, Cady, I'll bet most of them are at least as tall as you are."

Cady huffed and turned to watch the narrowed eyes. She wasn't paying attention to most of it but she counted and Gryffindor had gaind nine new students. Four girls and five boys. One thing did catch her eye though, one of the girls was a little larger than the rest, and she seemed to be ignored, no-one sat beside her and it appeared that nobody was talking to her either. This struck Cady as very odd because she had found her house to be quite accepting, but then again it could be just the nerves of the others, maybe they found the girl intimidating. As Dumbledore annouced that they could eat Cady rose from her seat and decided to go speak to the kid.

Arcadia sat down beside the girl and was struck by how pretty she was, she had the brightest green eyes Cady had ever seen and her hair was hanging in big brown curls that caught the light of the many candles and shone.

"Hello." She chirped happily.

The girl's face reddened. "H-hi." She looked down and begun to pile something that looked like stew onto her plate.

"I'm Arcadia, but you can call me Cady." She held out a hand which the girl accepted politely.

"I'm Abigail, m-most people call me Abbie."

"Abbie. That's a pretty name."

The girl blushed. "Th-thank you."

Cady smiled warmly. "Are you excited to be here, then?"

The girl nodded her head quickly. "My parents aren't too sure about it. They don't think magic's real. My nana's real pleased with me, though. She says that if my parents say anything then I can go stay with her."

"My parents are muggles too. Can I ask you something?"

Abbie nodded again. "Okay."

"How do you get your hair so nice? I mean, mine's just a regular birds nest, but yours is really pretty and shiny and smooth." Cady could see in her peripheral vision that some of the other first years were looking at them. She smiled.

"Oh, I just wash it and condition it with this real nice blueberry shampoo and my nana bought me some serum that seperates the curls. If you use a comb instead of a brush it doesn't go frizzy." The way she talked made it sound like she was in her element talking about hair.

"Is your hair naturally that curly?" One of the girls across the table asked.

Abbie nodded.

"It's lovely."

Abbie beamed and shot a greatful smile at her. "Thank you."

"No problem. I'm Jenna, it's nice to meet you."

"Well, I got places to be, people to see. It was nice meeting you." She shot a look that screamed 'go for it' at Abigail and with one last smile she was skipping back down to her friends who gave her a strange look.

"What was all that about?" James asked.

"Just having a chat." She said, and as she sat down the food disappeared and was replaced with a wide range of puddings. Cady leaned forwards and picked up a slice of her favourite lemon tart.

"Why would you want to talk to a first year? Do you know her or something?" Sirius enquired.

Cady shook her head at the same time Lily spoke. "Don't be so tactless, she was helping that girl fit in, right Cady?"

Cady nodded. "She's really very pretty, and she gave me advice on how to make my hair less bird-nesty." She chuckled.

"Your hair's fine the way it is." Sirius said, shocking her so she choked on her pudding.

Annabel hit her on the back and when she stopped gagging she managed to compose herself enough to say. "Thank you, that was very unexpected, but thanks anyway." She smiled happily and hummed her way through the rest of the feast.


	20. Potions

Beggining Again

There was a unanimous groan from the Gryffindor seventh years. They had just been given their timetables and the first lesson of the day was potions. In Cady's opinion it was most certainly not the best way to start a new term, she wasn't very good at potions, she often made mistakes and had to ask Lily, Annabel or one of the Marauders for help. She had made a promise to herself that she would study this year, it was the most important one because it was the N.E.W.T. year, the one were they would get the grades that would determine how the rest of their lives in the wizarding world would be.

Cady wasn't exactly sure what she wanted to be, she had never given much thought to it, probably because her lack of talent gave her nothing to go by. Sure she could perform the spells, sometimes, it was when her emotions were strongest that her spells were best, but generally unpredictable. She remembered last year during a Defence Against The Dark Arts lesson when she had gotten a little jealous of another boy when they were giving non-verbal spells a go and she had soaked him with a rush of water. She chuckled a little at the memory and returned to her apple.

She was just getting ready to leave when she heard two familiar, booming voices getting closer. "Morning boys." She said without looking up from where she was prowling through her bag, trying to determine exactly what it was that was making it so heavy. "Aha!" She called truimphantly and pulled from the bottom of the patch covered bag a large pruple rock. She set it on the table beside some of the books she had removed to make her search easier.

"Uh, Hayes, what are you doing with a rock in your bag?" James asked, a little worried.

"Oh, it's my paperweight, you never know when you'll need one." She awnsered. "I forgot all about it." She pushed her belongings back into her bag, including the rock. "Now I know why it feels so heavy." She mumbled to herself.

"Oh yeah, 'cause it's not weird to carry a giant rock around in your bag." Sirius said, holding back laughter.

"Not if you're Cady." Annabel said from across the table.

"Thank you." Cady smiled at her and rose from the table. "Well, I guess I'll see you all in potions." She waved and skipped from the room. The entrance hall was full of bustling students and Cady found it difficult to navigate her way down to the dungeons for the potions room. She was about to give up after five minutes when somebody grabbed her arm and pulled her through the crowd of students. When they were clear and in the dungeons her helper let go of her arm. She recognised him as Richard Ferris, a seventh year Ravenclaw. He had deep green eyes and a shock of blonde hair framing his face. Cady looked up greatfully.

"Thanks. I probably would've been late if you hadn't been there." She smiled shyly.

"It's okay. You aren't hard to miss, what with your hair and all, and you looked like you were struggling." He grinned in a charming way and held the door of the potions room open for her.

"Who said chivalry's dead?" She commented, blushing a little as he winked.

A surprising number of people were already in the potions room, but Cady guessed it was about time for them to be arriving, she had spent quite sometime lost in the sea of students. Most of the tables had already been claimed and she could see Lily's fiery red hair at the front of the room, the girl occupying the desk directly before Slughorn's. Cady deliberated for a minute of two, trying to decide whether or not to take the empty space beside her friend, but she decided against it, figuring she would give the girl at least one class where she wouldn't be bugged for help by a confused Cady. Instead she settled for taking the table behind Lily and she was surprised when Richard sat beside her, sending her another of his dazzling smiles.

"Mind if I sit here?" He asked.

Cady shook her head happily. "Not at all." She looked past him to see the other Ravenclaw's giving him confused looks. "Won't your friends mind?" She questioned.

"I can sit with who I like." He grinned. "Plus, it'll be nice to socialize with someone new for a change, and such a nice girl too."

Cady could feel the heat rising in her cheeks. "Thank you, but you probably won't think of me so fondly when you've known me for a while."

"You never know." He responded.

Arcadia heard the door open again and a large group of people she recognised entered. Annabel and Remus took the table beside Lily's, and James took the seat next to the redhead, much to her annoyance, leaving Sirius to take the only remaining seat, beside a chatty Hufflepuff girl behind Cady.

Slughorn raised an eyebrow at the latecomers but quickly dropped it, announcing that they would be working in pairs and starting the year by making a Shrinking Solution. Richard quickly said that he would go and get the ingredients that they needed from the store cupboard. She heard the Hufflepuff behind her do the same so she turned to talk to Sirius while they were waiting.

"Bonjour." She said cheerfully.

"Why're you sitting with Ferris?" He asked.

"Well, he asked me if her could sit there and it's a free country so I said yes. Why're you so bothered? Did you want to sit with him instead?" She chuckled but stopped when he maintained his serious - no pun intended- face.

"No. You've messed up the order, now I've gotta sit with someone who I'm afraid is going to talk me to death."

Cady laughed again. "Don't be such a grumpy guts, Sirius, you never know, she could be the next in your long line of adoring women."

A smile creeped onto his face. "Jealous, Hayes? Maybe you can jump on the bandwagon too." He winked.

"No thanks, I prefer my men with at least two brain cells." She quipped.

"You keep telling yourself that, one day you'll succumb to my charm." He laughed and turned to his partner as she returned.

Cady pivoted so that she was once again facing the front of the room and waited for Richard. It didn't take him long to come back with everything they would need to brew the potion.

"So, do you want to do the prep or the making?" He asked politely.

"Hmm, I think I'll go prep, at least that way I wont be able to burn anything, or anyone." She replied and he handed over the ingredients. They were working in a companionable silence for a few minutes until the first ingredients were ready to go into the potion. "Here you are." Cady said, indicating the minced daisy roots and peeled shrivelfig.

Richard smiled. "Do you really think you're _that _bad at potions, Cady?"

She nodded. "If you don't believe me you can ask anyone in here that I've previously worked with." She gestured to the people on the benches around her, and Lily, who had apparently been listening turned around.

"It's true, she set our Wit Sharpening potion on fire last year." She winced at the memory.

James turned around and joined the conversation. "Cady's a disaster, you'd best keep a close eye on her unless you want some kind of hideous scar."

Sirius' voice echoed from behind them. "Yeah, if you want to live don't let Hayes touch anything."

Cady grumbled. "Okay. We get it, I suck at potions. I thought you guys were supposed to be my friends."

"We are." Annabel said, leaning towards them. "We're protecting you from hurting yourself, and anyone around you." She smiled cheekily and Cady stuck her tongue out.

"Hang on." Lily said and gave Cady a suspicious look. "How did you get into N.E.W.T. potions?" She raised an eyebrow.

"I got an Exceeds Expectations in O.W.L year. Don't ask me how, I just did." She shrugged.

"Oh." Lily said, and turned back to her potion.

Richard observed Cady with a careful eye. "I'll bet I could help you." He offered.

Cady smiled. "Thanks, but I doubt even the Good Lord himself could solve my potions problems."

"No, seriously. Next time we have to make a potion together you're going to do it, and I bet it'll come out fine."

Cady was shaking her head and to back her up the two infront of her called a loud "No!" as soon as he finished his sentence.

"Eavesdropping's not very nice, guys." Cady said.

James turned his head to look at her. "Yeah, but it's for a good cause." He chuckled at the expression on her face and turned back to where Lily was babbling instructions at him.

"At least give it a shot. For me?" Richard asked again, giving her puppy dog eyes. "I promise I wont hold it against you if it does go wrong."

Cady laughed. "Fine. I guess I could give it a go. We'd just better hope it's something simple."

By the end of the lesson the potion was a bright acid green, which meant they had suceeded.

"Well done, well done." Slughorn praised as they packed away. "Next time we will be trying to re-create the Draught of Living Death." He told them and Cady went whiter than usual. The Draught of Living Death was an advanced potion, and that meant there would be even more for her to mess up. Slughorn noticed her expression when he looked at Lily, one of his favourite students. "Something wrong, Miss Hayes?" He asked.

"N-nothing sir." She said quickly as a few heads turned her way.

Slughorn nodded and dismissed the class.

"Hey, don't worry about it. Trust me, you'll do fine." Richard said, giving her a reassuring smile. Cady couldn't help but think, _where have you been all my life?_

"Thanks, Richard." She grinned. "I guess I'll see you later." She waved and made her way to divination.


	21. Divination

Beggining Again

Cady entered the Divination classroom with a smile on her face. It was probably the only subject she didn't ask for help in, probably because she had no-one to ask, but she was pleased with her acheivment. She was once again sat with John, and she didn't mind, in Cady's opinion it was a good year for socializing. After being told they were to practice Crystal Gazing she let her mind drift away with thoughts of her friends and how nice it was to be back in the castle she thought of as home. She was interrupted by the airy voice of the professor beside her.

"What do you see, dear?" The woman asked patiently.

Cady focused her eyes on the ball infront of her, looking through the smoke. It was a moment before she saw it, a shadowy figure in a long black cloak, her first thought was Death Eater, but a gut instinct told her it was much, much worse than that. She caught a glimpse of snake-like features before the smoke billowed out and the vision was gone. She looked to the teacher with confused eyes, took a quick breath and awnsered.

"I saw a figure, in a long, dark cloak. I couldn't see what it was doing, but I can't shake the feeling it was something awful."

The forty-something woman moved back a little and looked into the girl's frightened eyes. "I'm sure it's nothing to worry about, Arcadia." She said kindly but Cady could see something behind her eyes that said otherwise. The professor quickly bustled along to where the two Slytherin students where sitting, mindlessly staring off into space.

John looked at her with mild interest. "Did you actually see that or are you just making it up?"

"I saw it. Why would I lie?" She raised an eyebrow.

John shrugged. "Just wondered is all."

The girl spent the rest of the lesson gazing through the window and watching the lake where the giant squid resided. When they were dismissed to go to lunch Cady was surprised to see Richard waiting in the hall outside the classroom. She was even more shocked when he started to walk alongside her.

"Hello." She greeted.

"Hi." He smiled down at her and she was struck by how tall he was.

"How come you're up here?" She asked politely.

"I thought I'd accompany you to the hall, you know, just in case you get stuck in a crowd again." He chuckled.

"No fair, it's not my fault I'm small and non violent."

He laughed again. "Non violent? Not from what I've heard."

She frowned. "Well, in the case of normal people, not pig headed men and evil Slytherins." She grinned truimphantly.

"Ok-ay." He extended the word. "So, tell me more about yourself, Cady."

She blinked. "Uh, what do you want to know? I'm not so interesting." She thought back to the last time someone had tried to get to know her, and blushed a little at the memory.

"Hm, what's your blood status?"

Cady frowned. "I'm muggleborn, why does that matter?"

He shook his head. "No, just wondering. What do you want to be when you grow up?" He asked as the were walking down the last set of stairs.

"I don't know. I'm not so skilled with magic, so I figure I'll just wing it."

"Wing it?" He looked a little confused.

_I thought Ravenclaws were smart, _She thought. "You know, go wherever life takes me."

He nodded and broke into a dazzling grin. "Maybe you could be a potion master?" He suggested.

She whacked him on the arm. "That's not funny." Cady tried and failed to keep a serious expression.

An arm looped around her shoulders and familiar laughter echoed through the hall. "Yeah, don't joke about something that could cost people their hair, or worse their lives." James quipped earning him a slap.

"Ouch. Padfoot she's getting violent again, make her stop!" He wailed in a mock-female voice.

"Hayes, you know it's not nice to pick on people dumber than you." Sirius said, shaking his head as if he was disappointed in her.

"Don't worry, I haven't hit you yet." She replied earning an incoherant grumble and a small chorus of laughter.

The friendly banter continued the whole way through lunch but the mood dulled a little when Annabel asked what they had next.

"Defence Against the Dark Arts, and stupid rotten Professor Rogers is still here." Cady moaned.

"I can't stand that woman she's horrible!" Lily said earning her strange looks.

"Do my ears decieve me or did I just hear Lily Evans bad mouth a teacher?" James said in shock.

Lily blushed the same colour as her hair and waved her fork in the air. "Well, I hardly think that woman counts as a teacher, more of an abnoxious toad."

Cady blinked twice. "Whoa, calm it Lily, if it's even you. Maybe your body has been inhabited by aliens thirsting for our blood!" She said in mock-terror.

Lily laughed and declared it was time for them to go, leading them to believe that she was infact, the real Miss Evans as they still had a good five minutes left of lunch.

"Well, I guess you're right. Maybe we'll get along this year." Cady commented optimistically as they made their way towards the classroom.

"Hurry up! No dawdling!" The short tempered brown haired woman shouted as the approached, her beady eyes boring holes into Cady.

"Somehow Cady, I doubt thing's have changed at all." Remus said and Cady gave a quick chuckle.

"Yeah, how could I expect anything different?" She said as they walked in.

The group were about to take their seats from last year but the stout woman interrupted them. "No! This year you are going to sit where I think you can be trusted!"

So they did. She placed Lily and James on the table in the far left corner, earning an eye roll from the redhead and a goofy grin from James. Remus was sat with a Hufflepuff boy whose name Cady didn't know. Sirius alone at the table beside the window, Annabel was just in front of him next to a friendly looking Ravenclaw girl. Of course the worst was saved for Cady, she was right in front of Roger's desk, and beside the Slytherin boy she had soaked with her non-verbal aguamenti charm the previous year. It was clear he recognised her because he gave a disgusted look before turning to the Professor.

"Professor? Is it possible for me to move?" He asked in his best suck-up voice.

"The only free space is beside Mr Black, you may sit there if you would prefer it." She said and the Slytherin looked just as sickened by that notion.

She heard him mumble. "I'll take my chances with the Mudblood brat."

Cady balled her hands into fists under the table, but decided it would be better if she just let it got for the time being. She could get him back when Rogers wasn't around. She sighed in defeat and thought to herself, _something tells me this is gonna be a long day._


	22. Warning

Beggining Again

Cady grumbled to herself as the Professor ranted on about the importance of paying attention and stufying. A few scoffs could be heard from the back of the room as she launched into an explanation on how if they didn't devote all their free time to the subject they would never succeed. The arrogant Slytherin beside her was doodling idly on a peice of parchment and she was sure that he was going out of his way to elbow her every few seconds. _Maybe he's hoping I'll flip and be expelled, fat chance, if he can make MY life hell, It would be rude not to return the favour. _A quick glance up told her Rogers had moved closer to the back of the room, Cady grinned wickedly and started to hum a chirpy tune, casting her eyes sideways so she could see the uncomfortable look on her partners face.

Just as she was really getting into the swing of things she heard a rather loud throat-clearing from behind her. Grinning embaressedly she turned her head to meet the narrowed hawk eyes of Professor Rogers.

"Ten points from Gryffindor, Hayes. I suggest you keep that mouth of yours shut for the remainder of this lesson."

Cady lowered her gaze and she could have sworn the sounds of a deep, barking laugh echoed from the back of the room, but she just shook her head and leant on the desk. _Not funny, stupid Professor, how am I supposed to do well with an evil cow like her, _she thought in a most un-Cadylike manner.

"This term we will be revisting a topic we breifly looked at last year; Non verbal spells." A pointed glance was shot at Cady, who meerly frowned in reply as the woman continued. "It's important that you practice, it's the only way you will be able to grasp full control and reach your highest potential. Now, for homework I'd like you all to go over the _aguamenti _charm, without reciting the incantation, obviously." With that she dismissed the class and they all rose, pushing books and quills into bags.

The boy beside Cady, whose name she thought was something like Oscar, stared down at her with menacing intensity, beady eyes wearing into her delicate features. "You dare try what you did last time and you won't last another week here." He moved so close to her that she felt his hot breath on her cheek. "Got it?"

Cady gave him a sheepish smile and shrugged her shoulders childishly. "I think so, it was something like 'Don't show ol' Ozzy up with amazing magic skills', right?"

The boy's eyes blazed with a burning fury, and Cady could tell he didn't appreciate her sense of humour. Just as he opened his mouth to no doubt make another snide remark Arcadia found herself flanked by two of her friends, and ushered out of the room.

"Aww, Cady, I'm sorry you have to sit with that jerk." Annabel said sympathetically.

Lily gave a pat of her arm. "That woman's a rotten teacher, she only cares about her favourites, I'm willing to bet she probably wouldn't even notice if only Slytherins turned up for her lessons. In fact she'd probably prefer it." The fiery tempered red-head rambled on but stopped suddenly as Cady and Annie gave her an odd look.

"Lily, you've changed, who'd have thought little Miss Evans would say a bad word about a Professor. My oh my." Cady said, leaning a pale arm on the slightly taller girl's shoulder. "And she showed such promise." She shook her head in mock sadness.

Lily blushed and they made their way into the hall, taking their usual seats at the end of the table. Turning to Annabel, Cady asked. "Where's Remus?"

The girl shook her head twice. "I don't know, he said he was tired. Maybe he's already gone to bed." She bit her lip, and they could tell that she was worried, she had a right to be.

Thinking about it, Cady realised that the kind hearted boy was often missing, before she meerly passed it off, not really noticing, but for some reason, something in her instinct told her illness wasn't the case.

Later that night, when everyone had retired to bed Cady awoke to the sound of distant howling. She felt compelled to take a walk outside, even though her brain kept telling her she would only get in trouble, she rose quietly, grabbing a loose grey cardigan to throw on over her white shirt and blue trousers.

The crisp night air was cool on her skin, blowing her hair about in wild tendrils. She didn't have trouble getting out of the castle, which was odd, because she had snuck out once before, and virtually every corridor was being monitored, she shrugged it off. Maybe there was something she had to see, and this was the castles way of urging her to find it. Arcadia Hayes was a great believer of fate and destiny, so her conclusion was easy to accept. As she stepped across the emerald grass, she heard the howling once again, only this time it was a lot closer.

_Get out of there, just turn around and go back inside, _Cady told herself, but she couldn't do it, she _needed _to see what it was. Needed to know what was lurking in the grounds of her school. _Curiosity killed the cat, _her mind tried to reason with her.

She cast her wide eyes upon the forrest as something in her peripheral vision made her jump.

There, in the midst of the thick trees, was a pair of glowing eyes, following the girl carefully. She could see the thing moving, whatever it was, it was big, and hairy.

_Relax, kid, just don't panic, keep still and maybe it wont notice you, _her mind suggested practically. However, something told her it had already spotted her, _maybe it's the fact the frickin' thing's running in your direction... Face it, you're doomed._ Suddenly, Cady wasn't so optimistic anymore, she watched the eyes moving closer as the creature huffed and panted on it's run.


	23. Strange situation

Beggining Again

She stood, frozen, a figure shining white in the moonlight, the expression on her face one of serene acceptance, rather than betraying her minds fright.

It ran, masses of wiry hair ruffled by the whistling wind, it's dark eyes focused on the girl, nose taking in the scent. That's when it stopped, as it drew in a long breath, no longer obsessed with the prey before it, a loud growl errupted from it's animal throat. Something had attacked it, Cady could make out the streamlined body and antlers of a stag, glinting in the moonlight.

_My savior, _she thought, the numbness in her limbs beggining to ease, allowing her movement, _this is odd, the way it just stopped. Why would it do that? _She asked herself, while the more sensible part of her brain was urging her to return to the castle. Her wide blue eyes traced the shapes of the animals in the moonlight, she knew it was crazy, but she took a few slow steps forward, trying to get a better look at the creature. It wasn't just some dog, as she had initially asumed, no, the body was much to large, to lean. It practically radiated mystery and intrigue. The small witch with a fascination for the supernatural sidestepped, so she could see the silhouettes of them. _It's beautiful, not in a conventional way, of course, it's more of a rugged beauty. _A wispy voice in her head was reciting the words over and over, mesmerized by it.

The stag, even in a brawl, was graceful and intelligent, if she didn't know better, Cady would have sworn he sent her a look that screamed _Run, girl! Don't just stand there! _Obviously she was delirious, well, she had to be to be standing there, meters away from something that thirsted for her blood. She absently stretched out a hand, reaching towards the animals, though her head was telling her no, her heart was instructing her to touch them, make sure it was real and not some halucination, or optical illusion.

Pale hair whipped past her face, making her appear the personification of tranquility, stood on the outskirts of a forrest, holding out a pale hand, welcoming the wierd and the wonderful, beconing the strange.

Suddenly two things jolted her out of her trance-like state, a sound of pain eminating from the slender stag, and a warm hand wrapping itself around her wrist and yanking her away from the scene. She was still watching with fascination as she was being pulled along, her eyes not once leaving the forrest, a desire to know filling her soul.

Her helper was still pulling insistantly, pain shot through her arm, burning along her shoulder. _Probably pulled something, _she assumed absently. Her breath caught in her throat, but she willed herself to keep going, the grip on her wrist was so storng she wasn't sure she wanted to see what would happen if she stopped, she'd probably have her arm ripped out of it's socket.

They came to a halt when they reached the inner walls of the castle, she leant against the cool stone wall and brushed her hair out of her eyes, raising her gaze to see her ally. Familiar green eyes were looking down at her, but they weren't expressing the familiar friendliness, no. Richard's eyes were burning with an unidentifiable emotion.

"Cady? What the hell were you doing?" He practically roared at her and she shrunk back on reflex. Her jerk of a stepfather had gotten angry with her once, extremely so, and she wasn't willing to face the consequences of that kind of fury again. Richard let out a long sigh. "Sorry, it's just, you shouldn't have been out here. Why didn't you run when you saw that thing?" He looked down at her with curiosity.

She shrugged sheepishly. "I g-guess I just wanted to see what it was. I woke up and, I-I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd take a walk." She ignored the look he gave her and continued. "That's when I saw it, and it struck me as pretty, you know? Like it was just waiting to be drawn, so I stayed." She blushed when she realised how stupid she sounded.

Richard scoffed. "You shouldn't be out in the grounds at night. What would your friends have done if that thing had gotten you? What if you'd been hurt? What if you had been killed?" His voice was so serious the girl shrank back once again, and suddenly the boy infront of her didn't seem so warm and kind. _He was only worried about you, and besides, there're two sides to every coin._

"I'm s-sorry." She muttered, casting her eyes to the floor.

Richard let out a light chuckle and placed a finger under her chin, lifting it up. "Just don't come out here again. You don't know what you could run into."


End file.
